A lawsuit filed by watchdog organization Judicial Watch would force the FBI to release the disparaging messages about President Donald Trump that a top FBI agent on the Russia investigation exchanged with an FBI lawyer on the same investigation.
Those messages forced Special Counsel Robert Mueller to kick the investigator, Peter Strzok, off of the Russia investigation, after the Department of Justice’s inspector general brought them to Mueller’s attention. Strzok played a leading role in both the Russia investigation as well as the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server. (RELATED: Top Clinton Aides Faced No Charges After Making False Statements To Anti-Trump FBI Agent)
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board argued that the biased messages are just the latest indicator that Mueller lacks credibility and should be replaced, while former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker said the revelation “casts a cloud over much of the Clinton investigation.”
The messages, which reportedly were exchanged during the presidential campaign, “should be responsive” to a lawsuit that Judicial Watch filed with the Department of Justice in October 2016, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told The Daily Caller.
In other words, the messages are the type of records Judicial Watch’s lawsuit seeks to recover, and they’re expected to be included in the batch of documents produced by the DOJ.
Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit for all documents related to the FBI’s “investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a non-government email server during her tenure,” as well as all documents pertaining to former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s infamous tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton.
As a result of that lawsuit, the FBI released 30 pages of documents related to the meeting, after the agency had previously claimed to be unable to find any such documents.
Fitton said he’s not sure what the timeline will be for getting the FBI to release Strzok’s texts and other related documents. (RELATED: Another Mueller ‘Lieutenant’ Applauded Sally Yates For Defying Trump)
Judicial Watch has also filed a separate FOIA request for documents related to Strzok’s dismissal, Fitton said, adding that his organization has yet to receive a response from the FBI. The FOIA request was submitted in March.
Fitton added that Judicial Watch is considering additional litigation as well.