Thread by @JohnWHuber

Here is how Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and Andy McCabe almost certainly committed yet another major felony AND even interfered with their own Trump/Russia investigation

THREAD

Background: McCabe has already been fired for lying repeatedly about leaking to the media, in particular to reporter @DevlinBarrett. His leakers were his Special Legal Counsel Lisa Page & Mike Kortan, FBI Communications Director

See @JusticeOIG report: oig.justice.gov/reports/2018/o…

Here are some of the text messages released yesterday by @TheJusticeDept

Strzok & Page are talking about Mike Kortan and worrying about "leak reg[ulations]" due to internal investigations into leaks. They are emailing via @gmail even though whatever it is = FBI "work-related"

That's a violation of internal @FBI regulations by the way. Page 22 of Records Management Policy says personnel may not use external email systems unless the email is also properly preserved, and definitely not when discussing "case issues": vault.fbi.gov/records-manage…

Anyway - onto the likely felony

Page wants to get "something" to Andy [McCabe] & "D" (Director @Comey) BEFORE things get too hot in the leak investigations

On Apr 10 2017 (probably after talking via phone with Strzok), Page is still at the office with "Andy" until late at night

What were Page & McCabe talking about? Well, this article published *the very next day* (Apr 11 2017), revealed for the first time ever the existence of a secret FISA surveillance warrant for @carterwpage

washingtonpost.com/world/national…

One of the authors was @DevlinBarrett, to whom McCabe/Page had previously leaked. He cited "law enforcement" sources

Since FISA warrants are classified that is probably a felony (18 USC § 793). It's also DEFINITELY a violation of the FBI employment agreement all employees sign. This prohibits disclosure of sensitive operational details and specifically wiretap or intercept information

If this leak was by McCabe/Page/Strzok (and the timing & their track record is definitely suspicious), it may even have damaged their own investigation, showing how seriously they were really taking the Trump-Russia "collusion" story

Why would it undermine the investigation?

@carterwpage DIDN'T KNOW HE WAS UNDER SURVEILLANCE!

The FBI were granted their *3rd* FISC renewal for @carterwpage on Jun 29 2017, *over 80 days after this article first revealed he was under surveillance*

The @FBI had also only just started to criminally interview @carterwpage. The first was in Mar 2017, with a further four held over the next few weeks. Revealing that Page (and his contacts) were under surveillance in a newspaper is probably not the best investigative move

Summary:

❌yet another felony leak

❌multiple violations of the FBI employment agreement

❌deliberate non-adherence to FBI records management policies for work related emails

❌undermined an investigation

"A true professional"
--@Comey on Andrew McCabe

/END