WASHINGTON — Former top FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok told House members behind closed doors Wednesday that political views he expressed in personal text messages never swayed decisions made in the FBI’s probes of Hillary Clinton or President Trump – an explanation that Republicans termed nonsensical.
“I don’t know how you read the texts, I don’t know how any reasonable person reads the texts and suggests there was no bias,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a conservative member of the Judiciary Committee. “I’ve read the text messages, I’ve read emails, I’ve read other information . . . the total absence of bias in any decision-making process is not consistent with the facts that I’ve read.”
Strzok, who played a leading role in the FBI’s investigations of Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state and the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia ties, has come under scrutiny for anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair. Among them was one message in which Strzok assured Page that “we’ll stop” Trump from becoming president.
The messages were found by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General during its investigation of the Clinton email probe and were featured in a report unveiled to the public earlier this month.
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