Thread by @JohnWHuber

OIG REPORT LEAK: The DOJ/FBI almost certainly *deliberately* hid an incredibly partisan Peter Strzok text message from the IG, Congress & the public

PAGE: "[Trump's] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!"

STRZOK: "No. No he's not. We'll stop it" <-- 🚨🚨🚨

THREAD

First thanks to @business reporters @JenniferJJacobs and @StevenTDennis for the scoop. They reveal that the follow text message exchange is included in the @JusticeOIG report to be released later today

Green - previously released
RED - deliberately hidden

Here are those text messages in context, sent in Aug 2016, just over a week after the FBI opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump/Russia

STRZOK's "No. No he's not. We'll stop it" text is MISSING, although his innocuous response to Page the next day *was released*

IMPORTANT: Aug 2016 is NOT the same period where the FBI claimed to have lost text messages due to a "technical error" (Dec 15 2016 to May 17 2017)

Not even the FBI has claimed any technical issues with messages in Aug 2016, dozens of which were ALREADY released

So who in the @TheJusticeDept *deliberately hid* this text message that strongly implies that STRZOK, the lead FBI counterintelligence agent on the Trump/Russia case was planning to "stop" @realDonaldTrump from becoming President?

Whoever it was needs firing or impeaching, TODAY

IG HOROWITZ considered this STRZOK text so important that he briefed Deputy AG Rosenstein directly as soon as it was discovered

And it was found by @JusticeOIG, not @TheJusticeDept

The upcoming IG report will include "a discussion" of this message...

...plus one more text! 🍿

Here's what I want to see from the IG or he's missed the 🎯

* How was this message found?

* How does STRZOK explain his plan to "stop" @realDonaldTrump from becoming President?

* Who is "we"? The FBI? The Crossfire team?

* Who in DOJ hid this explosive text & why?

/ENDS

N.B. 1 - the "stop Trump" text ISNT EVEN REDACTED

It's simply not there - its expunged

That's because *even redacted messages* could be seen by Congressional investigators during secure "in camera" reviews at DOJ (e.g: the embarrassing $70K spent on MCCABEs conf room table)

There is no legitimate purpose to REMOVING a message entirely, instead of fully redacting it

UNLESS: you're trying to hide something from Congress

DOJ could even redact & refuse to unreact, if a text related to an ongoing investigation, was personal etc

That wasn't done either

N.B.2: As pointed out here, a week after "we'll stop it" STRZOK says "we can't take [the] risk" of TRUMP being elected.

This is the "insurance policy" text, which was bad before, but far more damning in this context: STRZOK wanted to cash in the policy!

N.B.3: Here is the second text* that @JusticeOIG recovered forensically.

**Wishing for @realDonaldTrump to resign a la Watergate**

*Actually appears to be two texts, one from PAGE & one from STRZOK both March 2017, NEITHER were turned over to Congress or the IG by the DOJ

N.B.4: The @JusticeOIG "explanation" for why STRZOK's August 8 "we'll stop [Trump]" message wasn't turned over by FBI is that it wasn't preserved due to a technical error.

However four other STRZOK messages were preserved *just in a single 24hr period*, EXCEPT for this text 🤔