Da Lazy Scholar: IMHO shutdown avoided reason

[Armonica_Templar]

2. Strzok Was Removed From the Investigation in August & Page Was Removed 1 Month Later

FBI Director Robert Mueller III testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during a oversight hearing on Capitol Hill December 14, 2011 in Washington, DC

In August, ABC News reported that Strzok was removed from the investigation. The news came one week after agents executed a search warrant on the Virginia home of Trump’s now-indicted former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The reason he was taken off the probe was unknown at the time, as he was well-respected in the industry as a law enforcement officer working counterintelligence cases. He was deemed to be one of the top investigators in the probe. ABC News reported that Strzok was taken off the Russia investigation and was sent to work in the F.B.I.’s human resource office, deemed a demotion within the agency.

A little over one month after Strzok’s departure, ABC News reported that F.B.I. lawyer Lisa Page also left the special Russia investigation. Page was known by various reports as being deeply experienced in “money laundering and organized crime cases,” and was part of what Wired magazine referred to as his “investigator’s dream team.”

While the departure of the two officials was well reported, they weren’t ever linked until now. A spokesman for Mueller’s office told The Post that Strzok was removed from his position “immediately upon learning of the allegations.” He added that Page left the investigative team two weeks prior to learning of the allegations.

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3. Strzok Took Part in the Clinton Email Investigation & Reportedly Altered the Language of the Findings

Strzok helped oversee the F.B.I.’s investigation into the use of a private email server by Clinton when she was secretary of state under President Barack Obama. She was accused of using her family’s private email server for her official communications, including over 100 emails which contained classified information. Strzok was one of multiple agents who interviewed Clinton in the probe during her testimony, which lasted well over three hours. Heavily-redacted court documents also show that Strzok took part in interviewing multiple others as part of the probe, and served as the No. 2 official in the probe into the email server.

The Department of Justice and Director James Comey eventually ruled that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling her email communications, but recommended that no charges be filed. CNN reported that it was Strzok who edited the description of Clinton’s actions in Comey’s official statement. An unnamed source told the news outlet that Strzok changed the phrase “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” in the statement. Someone who mishandles classified information can be prosecuted under federal law if they were “grossly negligent” in doing so.

“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Comey said in his statement on the results of the investigation.

Upon receiving documents from the F.B.I. in November, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned why the change was made, but the person responsible was never named.

Because of his previous ties to the Clinton investigation, some were taken by surprise when it was announced July 13 that Strzok was joining the team of over 25 people, including FBI employees and support staff, in Mueller’s exclusive probe.

Special counsel spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on much of the announcement, other than saying Strzok oversaw “the beginnings of the Russia probe last summer,” CNN reported.

The team of investigators moved into offices in southwest Washington D.C., near the Department of Justice headquarters.

Officials from the F.B.I. said they were further reviewing communications between Strzok and Page to see if there was any political bias in their work.

The Department of Justice’s inspector general’s office said in a statement to The Postthat investigators were “reviewing allegations involving communications between certain individuals, and will report its findings regarding those allegations promptly upon completion of the review of them.”

Neither Strzok nor Page responded to the news outlets for comment. If evidence of a political bias is found in their work, it could result in a public report being filed.

Some on social media, including ex-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, have called for the text conversations between Strzok and Page to be released as a matter of public record.

Trump also commented on Strzok and the incident in the Mueller-led investigation via Twitter.








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