Thread by @JohnWHuber

🚨NEW: In a previously undisclosed text on July 27 2016 (when Trump joked about Russians finding Hillary’s 30K emails) Page & Strzok had the following exchange:

PAGE: Have we opened on him yet?

STRZOK: Opened on Trump? If Hillary did, you know 5 field offices would...

THREAD

IMPORTANT:

—Only 4 days later, Crossfire Hurricane (CH) opened

—“Him” by Page refers to Trump personally, shown by Strzok’s response

—Comey denied under oath CH was an investigation into *Trump*, saying it was “enterprise” investigation into Russia & any “links” with campaign

The Special Counsel legal advisor to the Deputy Director of the FBI really shouldn’t be asking if investigations have been opened into presidential candidates they don’t like, and investigations should be into potential *crimes* not specific *people*

Given Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane himself, it’s legitimate to question whether he was motivated by a desire to investigate Trump *personally*, rather than any genuine investigative leads into Russian interference and potential links to the campaign (I.e. the PapaD “tip”)

N.B. The Strzok response has previously been reported, but I couldn’t find any prior reporting of Lisa Page’s question (“Have we opened on him yet?”) that prompted Strzok’s response. If you have seen it before, please let me know

/ENDS

Source is DOJ's motion to dismiss Strzok's wrongful dismissal lawsuit, Exhibit 4.

The text message exchange does not seem to appear in the texts disclosed to Congress, even redacted.

The @JusticeOIG report (justice.gov/file/1071991/d…; see p399) does not include this text message even though this section is headed "Text Messages Commenting on Trump or Clinton" which "highlight[s] examples of text messages of a political nature commenting on Trump & Clinton"