Devin Nunes Makes Move, Calls For Criminal Referrals Over Peter Strzok’s Text Messages
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., just dropped the hammer and is calling for a criminal referral to investigate the FBI and Department of Justice for failing to turn over text messages from former FBI agent Peter Strzok that he claims would have helped the GOP’s investigation of the Russia probe.
“They knew that we were investigating FISA abuse, why would this not have been given to Congress? This is just another example we’re going to have to do another criminal referral,” Nunes said.
“This is clearly lying and obstructing Congress. This is information that we asked for numerous times,” Nunes said.
“We sat in meetings with DOJ and FBI, and they sat there and stone cold said there’s no more information, there’s no more text messages.”
“These were the text messages that we really needed to run a proper investigation,” Nunes said.
“Instead we had to go around we had to rely on informants, we had to piece all this together in order to get this out to the American people that hey, Trump campaign and Republicans were not only spied on but this was wrong.”
“I don’t see how John Durham can’t bust several people for lying and misleading Congress,” he said.
From The Daily Caller:
The messages in question are from Strzok’s Lync account, the FBI’s internal messaging system.
The messages, which The Daily Caller News Foundation published on Thursday, show Strzok discussing details of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of the Trump campaign.
The messages show Strzok, who was fired from the FBI in August 2019, commenting on July 28, 2016, about open counterintelligence investigations related to Trump. The FBI has insisted that the bureau was not investigating Trump before Strzok opened Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016.
Nunes has long doubted the FBI’s official claims about the beginning of its investigation of the Trump campaign.
He said Sunday that Strzok’s messages show the FBI’s narrative “was always nonsense.”
Strzok sent a message to another FBI employee on Sept. 23, 2016, asserting that former British spy Christopher Steele had spoken to a news outlet regarding a dossier he compiled on Donald Trump in order to “influence” the FBI’s investigation.
The Justice Department inspector general blasted the Crossfire Hurricane team for withholding exculpatory information regarding the Steele dossier in its applications for FISA warrants against Carter Page.
Nunes did not identify who he plans to refer for criminal investigation, but he asserted that Justice Department and FBI officials lied to Congress regarding the existence of documents like the latest batch of Strzok messages.