FBI agent Peter Strzok texted his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, that they would “stop” Donald Trump winning the 2016 election, according to multiple stories about an upcoming report into the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page wrote to Strzok, according to the Washington Post (paywall).
“No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it,” Strzok replied, the Post and Bloomberg report. The stories cite a report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, expected to be released at 2pm today.
In December, Robert Mueller removed Strzok (paywall) from his probe into foreign meddling in the 2016 election. The pair have been frequently cited by Donald Trump as evidence that the FBI sought to undermine him and put Hillary Clinton in power during the 2016 election. The US president tweeted about the lovers as recently as this month.
However, the report didn’t find any evidence that any “improper considerations, including political bias” had a direct affect on the FBI’s handling of Clinton’s emails, inspector general Michael Horowitz writes, according to Bloomberg.
Horowitz also criticizes then-FBI director James Comey’s handling of the case, saying he departed “clearly and dramatically” from FBI norms, Bloomberg reports, and that there was a “troubling lack of any direct, substantive communication” between Comey and then attorney general Loretta Lynch, ahead of Comey’s June 5 press conference, in which he lambasted Clinton.