Strzok-Page Texts Indicate They Might Have Broken DOJ Policies for Conducting Domestic Investigation In Seeking to Recruit Spies on Trump's Staff

Catherine Herridge and Greg Re report.

So, when the FBI was supposed to be briefing the Trump team, they were actually using that opportunity to look for possible recruits into their spying operation, and possibly deviating from the standard briefing protocol to try to get reactions and collect intelligence against Trump.

Oh, Trump totally was out-of-line firing Comey.

Text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page indicate they discussed using briefings to the Trump team after the 2016 election to identify people they could "develop for potential relationships," track lines of questioning and "assess" changes in "demeanor" -- language one GOP lawmaker called "more evidence" of irregular conduct in the original Russia probe.

Fox News has learned the texts, initially released in 2018 by a Senate committee, are under renewed scrutiny by congressional investigators reviewing the genesis of the FBI's counter-intelligence probe that was opened in late July 2016 by then-agent Strzok.

It was not clear from the messages whether Strzok and Page merely sought to build bridges with the incoming administration, or wanted to engineer the briefings to investigate Trump and his associates.

...

A former FBI intelligence officer, who retired after nearly two decades of experience, said the texts conflict with strict rules laid out by Robert Mueller when he was FBI director, known as the FBI's Domestic Investigations Operations Guide (DIOG).

"Based on the formal training all FBI Employees were required to undergo and be tested on with regard to DIOG Sensitive Investigative Matters, these texts indicate both FBI employees were executing investigative strategies on a sensitive investigative matter without any regard for the Mueller/Holder endorsed DOJ DIOG," Timothy Gill Sr. told Fox News.

posted by Ace of Spades at 02:18 PM

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