Thread by @atrupar

Peter Strzok is about to testify before the House. This will be a complete and utter shit show. Follow me for a video thread.

.@RepGoodlatte begins with a rant completely ignoring the IG's conclusion that FBI agents' private anti-Trump views had no bearing on how the Clinton investigation was handled.

.@RepJerryNadler begins by wondering why House Republicans are holding *another* hearing about Hillary's emails instead of investigating family separations or Trump's repeated efforts to meddle in the DOJ or doing any real oversight work at all.

NADLER: "In majority's view, the texts exchanged between Strzok & Page are higher priority than Trump's request that Comey end the investigation of Flynn or his decision to fire Comey... their view is we don't have time to conduct oversight on almost any national security issue."

.@TGowdySC (R-Benghazi) begins with a disingenuous rant in which he conflates Strzok and Page's personal anti-Trump views with "bias."

(REMINDER: the IG found that personal bias didn't impact the Clinton investigation.)

.@RepCummings brought props!

Rep. Cummings makes case that what House Republicans are really up to is not trying to conduct oversight of the FBI, but doing Trump's bidding by attempting to discredit the Mueller investigation

Strzok gets sworn in

STRZOK: "Private messages of mine have provided ammunition for misguided attacks against the FBI... like many ppl, I had & expressed political opinions during an extraordinary election. Many expressed concern for security of our country... not once did it impact official action."

Strzok makes the key point that if he or other FBI agents were operating with anti-Trump bias, it makes no sense that they didn't leak details about the investigation of the Trump campaign to the press during the 2016 campaign.

Yet nobody leaked such information.

Gowdy and Goodlatte try to pressure Strzok, who is still an FBI employee, to answer questions about the still-active investigation into the Trump campaign.

The hearing quickly devolves into a shit show.

After @RepGoodlatte threatens to imprison Strzok if he doesn't answer questions about the Trump investigation, @RepJerryNadler points out to Goodlatte that the FBI manual directs agents not to answer questions about ongoing investigations.

In his effort to do Trump's bidding, Goodlatte starts yelling. He won't stop until Strzok gives up the goods about the FBI's active investigation into the Trump campaign.

Goodlatte wants to prevent Strzok from conferring with an FBI attorney, EVEN THOUGH HE'S AN EMPLOYEE OF THE FBI. What an embarrassment.

House Republicans are conducting a Stalinist show trial of an FBI agent. This is theater of the absurd.

House Democrats are revolting against @RepGoodlatte, who refuses to end @TGowdySC's rant despite the fact it's been going on for about 10 minutes already (he was only supposed to have 5 minutes).

.@TGowdySC, who was supposed to have 5 minutes to ask Strzok questions, has been ranting for coming up on 25 minutes now.

@RepGoodlatte simply refuses to end the madness.

After Gowdy concludes his rant by dismissively saying he doesn't "give a damn" what Strzok thinks, Strzok points out that his private anti-Trump texts came in response to Trump insulting "the immigrant family of a fallen war hero" during the campaign.

STRZOK characterizes the House Republican charade as "deeply corrosive to what the FBI is in American society, the effectiveness of their mission and deeply destructive." A smattering of applause breaks out in chamber.

Since House Republicans want to hold Strzok in contempt, @RepSwalwell moves to hold Steve Bannon in contempt.

(Bannon refused to answer questions during his testimony.)

During his Qs, @RepCummings points out that during closed-door testimony, House Republicans asked Strzok for information about confidential human sources involved in the Trump investigation -- questions that puts those sources at grave risk 🤔

@RepMarkMeadows takes umbrage.

Strzok points out that he was more interested in new info about Russian meddling than the Weiner laptop in Oct 2016 because "a hostile foreign power interfering & influencing the election for the POTUS, I can think of few more severe or consequential threats facing our nation."

GOODLATTE: It seems like FBI was leaning toward not recommended charges against Clinton before investigation ended. Correct?

STRZOK: Correct

G: Is that normal?

S: Yes

G: But in other cases did you dislike the target of the investigation?

S: Personal beliefs aren't relevant

.@RepGoodlatte is very offended that Peter Strzok isn't a big fan of Trump and his supporters. ❄️❄️❄️

(AGAIN: IG found that his personal views didn't impact his work, and people are allowed to have personal views!)

Goodlatte, bizarrely, is using his time to grill Strzok about his opinions on the conduct of James Comey and Loretta Lynch during 2016. (REMINDER: Comey went out of his way to hurt Hillary.)

Goodlatte transparently tries to use Strzok to discredit the Mueller probe.

(Mueller removed Strzok from his team as soon as his anti-Trump text messages became known -- not sure what else he was supposed to do?)

Strzok has to patiently explain to Goodlatte that everybody is entitled to private political beliefs, even if they work for the FBI!

.@RepJerryNadler debunks House Republicans' conspiracy theory within 3 minutes -- Strzok is entitled to political views, he didn't express them publicly, the IG found Strzok's views didn't impact his work, and other FBI agents are clearly pro-Trump

Nadler leads Strzok to a key point -- THE FBI BROKE PROTOCOL IN COMMENTING PUBLICLY ON THE HILLARY CLINTON CASE.

As the IG detailed, if anything, the FBI was biased against Clinton, not Trump. This reality undermines the entire Republican conspiracy theory.

NADLER: How frequently does the FBI investigate a conspiracy between a presidential candidate and a hostile foreign power?

STRZOK: This is the first time I can recall.

NADLER: So fair to say this continues to be an unprecedented threat, unlike Weiner's laptop?

STRZOK: Yes.

.@RepJerryNadler brings 🔥: "Why have Republicans have been so dismissive of Russia's attacks on the U.S.? Why are they so intent on destroying confidence in the DOJ & special counsel? Why have they abandoned House rules?... Because they are scared & accountability is coming."

Democrats (including @davidcicilline) indicate they plan to release the transcript of Strzok's closed-door testimony to the public, because @RepGoodlatte is unable to cite a compelling reason they shouldn't beyond that he doesn't want them to.

Strzok consents to its release!

lolol @RepMarkMeadows, realizing Republicans are backed into a corner regarding the transcript, pathetically offers to "work with" Democrats on the release of the Strzok testimony.

Nadler points out that all he & other GOPers want to do is obstruct the Russia probe.

Rep. Sensenbrenner (R) asks Strzok to detail why FBI didn't describe Hillary's email conduct as "grossly negligent," Strzok explains, Sensenbrenner huffs about Trump winning the election and demonstrates complete disinterest in Strzok's response

.@RepZoeLofgren points out that Trump's tweets slamming the FBI and DOJ for their handling of the Hillary investigation ARE NOT supported by the Inspector General's report, which found that bias did not impact the process.

HAHAHAHA @RepMarkMeadows, supposedly a fan of "total transparency," is pulling out all the stops to prevent Democrats from releasing the transcript of Strzok's closed-door testimony.

Meadows asks that he first has a chance to scrub the transcript of "embarrassing information."

.@RepRatcliffe argues Strzok isn't being honest when he echoes IG report's conclusion that bias didn't impact Clinton investigation, because he sent some texts expressing private anti-Trump views on an FBI-provided phone. (The IG found bias didn't impact the investigation.)

.@JacksonLeeTX18: Did anything you do in '16 change fact that Trump campaign met w/Russia agent in Trump Tower?

STRZOK: No

LEE: Did it change Trump asking Russia to hack?

S: No

L: Did it affect pro-Russia changes to GOP platform?

S: No

L: Any bearing on Flynn's lies?

S: No

.@DarrellIssa tries to publicly embarrass Strzok by having him repeatedly read his anti-Trump texts out loud.

Strzok responds by pointing out some of his anti-Trump texts came in response to Trump wavering on whether America should even honor its commitments to NATO.

.@RepSteveChabot: Don't you think it's troubling that members of Mueller's team have donated to Democrats?

STRZOK: I can assure you FBI agents do not sit around and talk about their political donations with each other.

(ALSO: Mueller is a Republican!)

.@Jim_Jordan grills Strzok on whether he communicated with @DavidCornDC about the Russia investigation during the campaign. Strzok says he didn't.

Peter Strzok debunked Republicans’ favorite FBI conspiracy theory before his hearing even started thinkprogress.org/peter-strzok-d…

.@replouiegohmert accuses Strzok -- who is under oath -- of lying, but says he could probably pass a polygraph test anyway.

Gohmert then shames Strzok for having an extramarital affair. The room erupts in outrage.

@davidcicilline calls Gohmert's comments "a disgrace."

Rep @GerryConnolly: "Wow. The American public could be forgiven for mistaking this so-called hearing for a Russian show trial. Its got all the character assassination & cherry-picking facts, and fabrications. It is astounding, and a new low in the U.S. Congress."

.@JudgeTedPoe (R) grills Strzok on how the public can trust bias didn't actually impact his work, given his texts.

Strzok tells him, in polite way, to read the damn IG report, since that's exactly what it's about.

Poe dismissively says "I don't believe you." (Believe the IG!)

A very low-energy, somber @Jim_Jordan is desperately fishing around for conspiracies and not getting any bites. Sad!

.@RepGutierrez on what House Oversight could be doing other than theater of the absurd: "There are 3k children separated from moms & dads and the govt don't know where... We have 16 women who have come forward to say POTUS attacked them. What does the committee do? No hearings."

WATCH: Gohmert shames Peter Strzok for having extramarital affair thinkprogress.org/gohmert-strzok…

Gutierrez leads Strzok to a key point: IF THE FBI REALLY HAD IT OUT FOR TRUMP, THEY WOULD HAVE LEAKED ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION OF TRUMP BEFORE THE ELECTION.

BUT THEY DIDN'T.

While running interference for a POTUS who benefited from an extramarital affair hush fund account during his campaign, @replouiegohmert shames FBI agent Peter Strzok for having an affair thinkprogress.org/gohmert-strzok…

STRZOK on what he meant by text in which he said he would "stop" Trump: "I thought there was no way... coming off the comparison of genital size during a debate, that the American population was going to elect this man."

My first thread on today's hearing was accidentally broken, but you can watch highlights of the rest of the hearing starting with the tweet below

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1017501874352738305