Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson added new details to a shocking revelation he made Tuesday night, saying that “a number of high level [FBI] officials,” including Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, took part in secret “offsite” meetings.
“There is indications there were a number of high level officials that were holding secret meetings offsite,” Johnson told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on Wednesday.
In a Fox News interview the night before, Johnson disclosed for the first time that the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which he chairs, has “an informant that’s talking about a group that was holding secret meetings offsite.” (RELATED: Senator Confirms Existence Of ‘Secret Society,’ Says He Has Informant)
The informant seemingly offered up information about the activities of Strzok and Page, who are at the center of a scandal over anti-Trump text messages that they sent while working on the Clinton email investigation and Russia probe.
Text messages released so far show that Strzok and Page, who were having an affair, suggested that they were under “pressure” to wrap up the Clinton investigation in Spring 2016 because of Trump’s ascendance to the Republican presidential nomination.
In a text several months later, Strzok spoke of an “insurance policy” that needed to be taken out in case of a Trump election win.
And in a May 19, 2017 text message released by Johnson’s committee on Tuesday, Strzok said that “there is no big there there,” seemingly in reference to the Russia investigation that had been taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. (RELATED: In ‘Jaw Dropping’ Text, Strzok Spoke Of ‘Concern’ With Mueller Probe)
Asked on Wednesday for details about his informant, Johnson declined to give specifics.
“I’m not going to get into at all where we are getting this information. We protect our sources,” the Republican told Hemmer.
“I don’t want to give any indication, because we are dealing with the world’s premier investigative agency here, and people that come forward to us fear retaliation. That’s true throughout government. People fear retaliation within government agencies, it’s rampant, and particularly within the FBI.”
It was also revealed on Tuesday that in the days after Trump’s 2016 election win, Strzok and Page exchanged a text message which referred to a “secret society” within the FBI.