Since December 15th, President Trump has taken to Twitter to discuss the Russian Investigation, using his favorite term “witch hunt,” five times.
1. Witch Hunt: 11:45 a.m., December 15th, 2018
2. Witch Hunt: 9:11 a.m., December 16th.
On December 13th, 2018, The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General released a report detailing the recovery of “thousands of text messages,” sent between former DOJ/FBI attorney Lisa Page, and former Special Agent for the FBI Peter Strzok.
According to the report, the Cyber unit was able to retrieve “approximately 9,311 texts,” from Strzok’s device and “approximately 10,760,” texts from Page’s device.
In the early stages of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation both Strzok and Page worked for Mueller, according to the IG report, both were issued iPhone’s, when they left the investigation those iPhone’s were turned back in and then given to the IG for investigation purposes, after having been reissued to other agents. No messages were obtained from those devices, but according to the Special Counsel’s Records Office, Strzok’s device was reviewed prior to being rest to factory settings, and “it contained no substantive text messages.” The Special Counsel’s Records Office, was not given Page’s device and therefore did not review her iPhone.
From President Trump’s tweet, “Such a big story that will never be covered by the Fake News.”
- The Washington Post “Inspector general report details hurdles in recovering Strzok, Page texts”
- The New York “Watchdog: No Evidence FBI Tried to Destroy Text Messages”
- NBC News “No evidence FBI tried to destroy text messages in Clinton email investigation”
- Politico “DOJ investigation turns up thousands of missing texts from Peter Strzok and Lisa Page”
3. Witch Hunt: 9:39 a.m., December 16th.
The onetime lawyer and self proclaimed “fixer” Michael Cohen had his office raided by the FBI in April after having legally obtained a search warrant, they legally collect documents numbering in the hundred of thousands.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to “five counts of tax evasion, one count of making a false statement to a bank and two campaign finance violations: making an unlawful corporate campaign contribution and making an excessive campaign contribution.”
In November, Cohen entered another guilty plea, this time the deal was made with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Office.
In December, Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison.
4. Witch Hunt: 2 linked tweets: 3:29 p.m., and 3:37 p.m., December 16th.
Mediaite reports that Daniel Henninger, who works for the Wall Street Journal, appeared on FOX News where he suggested “that prosecutors,” were attempting to get President Trump through his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators in December of 2017 and has cooperated with several “on-going,” investigations, as the News Blender reported in early December, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Office filed a sentence memo and a redacted addendum. According to court documents, the “on-going” investigations are not solely related to the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation, but with other Department of Justice attorney’s.
As the News Blender reported on Monday, Flynn’s business partner, Bijan Kian, was indicted for among other things, “acting as agent of a foreign government and for attempting to get Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen extradited from the United States.”
Flynn is scheduled to appear for his sentencing hearing on Tuesday.
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the Russian investigation as it pertained to the Trump campaign, citing ethic concerns. Sessions was resigned/fired after the midterms, President Trump has nominated Former Attorney General William Barr to the position of AG. Currently, Sessions Chief of Staff, Matt Whitaker is the acting Attorney General.
5. Witch Hunt: 3:56 p.m., December 16th.
The “insurance policy,” that President Trump mentions in the tweet, is based on a text message that Strozk’s sent to Page, as was quoted in the Inspector General report released in summer of 2018, page 404, “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office—that there’s no way he gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40…”
The Inspector General at the time found no political bias that affected either the Hillary Clinton email investigation or the early stages of the Russian Investigation, though the IG noted at the time, that they were concerned with FBI and DOJ protocol being ignored by former Director of the FBI, James Comey and his deputy Andrew McCabe.
Trump Twitter Archive has President Trump tweeting the words “Witch Hunt,” 155 times, which includes the five covered in this article. The first one according to the Archive was issued Jan 10, 2017.
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