‘High-level FBI officials’ allegedly involved in Strzok-Page ‘secret society’
January 25, 2018 by admin
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Texts indicate secret society to resist Trump
Some lawmakers are concluding that there most definitely was an institutional bias among some at the FBI against candidate and then President Trump.
The “secret society” referenced in a text message between Trump-bashing FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page allegedly involved multiple “high-ranking FBI officials,” a top GOP lawmaker said Wednesday.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., revealed this week that his committee met with a whistleblower informant who gave more details on that “society,” claiming the group was known to meet “off-site.” Johnson elaborated in an interview Wednesday on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” indicating others were involved.
“I have heard from somebody who has talked to our committee that there is a group of individuals in the FBI who were holding secret, off-site meetings,” Johnson said Wednesday. “I think there are indications there were a number of high-level FBI officials that were holding secret meetings off-site.”
Johnson first revealed that the committee had an informant Tuesday on Fox News’ “Special Report.” He said Wednesday he is still “connecting the dots” between the source’s information and the text messages he and other lawmakers have reviewed.
MISSING TEXTS FROM FBI ‘LOVERS’ COVER ‘PRIME’ PERIOD, TRUMP SAYS
“Understand that Strzok and Page were very high-level in the FBI. Peter Strzok’s title was FBI deputy assistant director of the counterintelligence division—these aren’t low level underlings,” Johnson said Wednesday. “These are individuals that had access to the highest level—to the director of the FBI.”
The “secret society” reference was first revealed this week, after congressional committees received hundreds of pages of text message records between Strzok and Page from the Justice Department. Congress is scrutinizing their discussions, after a slew of anti-Trump texts surfaced last year from the two officials who once worked on Robert Mueller’s Russia probe — fueling allegations of bias at the bureau.
Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., and Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said Monday that the texts revealed there may have been an internal group “working against” President Trump.
“There’s a text exchange between these two FBI agents, these two supposed to be objective fact-centric FBI agents, saying that perhaps this is the first meeting of the ‘secret society’,” Gowdy said Monday on “The Story with Martha MacCallum” Monday. The message apparently was sent the day after Trump won the November 2016 election.
‘You can see the impunity with which they’re acting because they are the FBI.’
Curiously, other texts released by Johnson show Strzok and Page appearing to wrestle with whether joining the Mueller probe would be worth it.
TRUMP, FBI BLAME SAMSUNG FOR LOSS OF STRZOK-PAGE TEXTS, AS ‘SECRET SOCIETY’ DETAILS EMERGE
In one text, Strzok wrote: “you and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”
The full context of those texts is not entirely clear.
Meanwhile, Republicans are pressing for answers on why five months of text messages — between December 2016 and May 2017 — are missing from the records.
The cover letter of the 384-pages of messages given to Congress notified investigators that the FBI’s technical system “failed to preserve text messages for Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page from December 14, 2016 through May 17, 2017.”
FBI’S STRZOK ALLEGEDLY DISMISSED MUELLER PROBE: ‘NO BIG THERE THERE’
The text messages have “cast a shadow” over the entire bureau this week, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said the FBI was cooperating with congressional committees to turn over documents.
(AP)
“The texts that have been produced are very concerning because they indicate a concerted effort – not just talk between two people,” Goodlatte said Wednesday on “America’s Newsroom.” “But a concerted effort in the department.”
Goodlatte noted that the FBI was cooperating with his and other congressional committees in turning over documents.
“Those texts are so important. This isn’t rehearsed testimony,” Johnson said. “They are just unvarnished statements made by two individuals, at the highest levels within the FBI. You can see the impunity with which they’re acting because they are the FBI.”
Johnson added: “Nobody’s ever going to investigate them. Well, sorry, we already started investigating them.”
Fox News’ Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report.
Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.
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DOJ threatens to subpoena sanctuary cities – prompting mayors to boycott Trump meeting
January 25, 2018 by admin
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Sessions: Sanctuary cities shouldn’t protect criminal aliens
Exclusive: Attorney General Jeff Sessions sounds off on the shocking not guilty verdict in the Kate Steinle murder trial. Plus, Sessions comments on Mike Flynn’s plea. #Tucker
The Justice Department on Wednesday threatened to subpoena 23 jurisdictions if they don’t turn over information about their “sanctuary” policies — triggering a backlash from mayors across the country who pulled out of a White House meeting.
In letters to New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and other jurisdictions, the Justice Department demanded records relating to whether these localities are “unlawfully restricting information sharing by law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities.”
“I continue to urge all jurisdictions under review to reconsider policies that place the safety of their communities and their residents at risk,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law.”
The letter drew a fiery response from several Democratic mayors — including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio — who said they would boycott a planned working session with the president at the White House on Wednesday.
“I will NOT be attending today’s meeting at the White House after @realDonaldTrump’s Department of Justice decided to renew their racist assault on our immigrant communities,” de Blasio tweeted. “It doesn’t make us safer and it violates America’s core values.”
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who serves as the president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, also said he would boycott the meeting.
“Unfortunately, the Trump administration’s decision to threaten mayors and demonize immigrants yet again – and use cities as political props in the process – has made this meeting untenable,” Landrieu said.
“Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
(Associated Press)
The White House said the meeting would still take place with mayors who chose to still participate.
“We are disappointed that a number of mayors have chosen to make a political stunt instead of participating in an important discussion with the President and his administration,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Lindsay Walters.
“President Trump might be able to tweet whatever comes to mind, but he can’t grant himself new authority because he feels like it,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in November, after the city filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s executive order defunding sanctuary cities.
(Associated Press)
The letters from the Justice Department state that jurisdictions that fail to respond will be subject to a DOJ subpoena.
“Sanctuary cities” is a phrase typically used to describe jurisdictions that restrict local law enforcement from sharing information with the federal government about the immigration status of those in custody.
“We have seen too many examples of the threat to public safety represented by jurisdictions that actively thwart the federal government’s immigration enforcement—enough is enough,” Sessions said.
The DOJ letter requests documents “reflecting any orders, directives, instructions, or guidance to your law enforcement employees” about how to “communicate with the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and/or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
If these jurisdictions can’t prove they are complying with federal law, senior DOJ officials told Fox News, federal funding could be withheld and the DOJ may demand the return of 2016 federal funding some of the cities have already received.
“We’ve given them federal dollars – your taxpayer dollars – to cooperate with federal law enforcement,” Sarah Isgur Flores, a spokeswoman for the DOJ, said Wednesday on “Fox Friends.” “They didn’t have to take that money, but they did. And when they took it, they said they would comply with federal law. So what we’re saying is if we find out you’re not complying with federal law, we’re taking the tax dollars back.”
The administration, though, has faced setbacks over trying to withhold federal funds for sanctuary cities. A federal judge in Chicago ruled against Sessions in September; a judge in San Francisco also blocked President Trump’s executive order that denied federal funding to these cities.
“President Trump might be able to tweet whatever comes to mind, but he can’t grant himself new authority because he feels like it,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in November, after the city filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the president’s executive order.
The jurisdictions that received letters on Wednesday, according to the Justice Department: Chicago; Cook County, Ill; New York City; the state of California; Albany, N.Y.; Berkeley, Calif.; Bernalillo County, N.M.; Burlington, Vt.; the city and county of Denver, Colo.; Fremont, Calif.; Jackson, Miss.; King County, Wash.; Lawrence, Mass.; City of Los Angeles, Calif.; Louisville, Ky.; Monterey County, Calif.; Sacramento County, Calif.; the city and county of San Francisco; Sonoma County, Calif.; Watsonville, Calif.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; the state of Illinois and the state of Oregon.
All 23 of these jurisdictions were previously contacted by the Justice Department, which raised concerns about its laws, policies and practices.
Jake Gibson is a producer working at the Fox News Washington bureau who covers politics, law enforcement and intelligence issues.
Alex Pappas is a politics reporter at FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexPappas.