Republican Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney characterized the text messages between Trump-hating FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page as sounding “an awful lot like a coup.”
Cheney told ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on Sunday that the correspondence between the two, who were both colleagues and lovers, could amount to treason.
FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok testifies before the House Committees on Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform joint hearing on “Oversight of FBI and DOJ Actions Surrounding the 2016 Election” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, U.S., July 12, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
“I think what is really crucially important to remember here is that you had Strzok and Page who were in charge of launching this investigation and they were saying things like, ‘We must stop this president, we need an insurance policy against this president,’” Cheney told ABC. (RELATED: Cheney: Democrats Are ‘Undermining Our Democracy,’ Helping Putin)
“That in my view when you have people that are in the highest echelons of the law enforcement of this nation saying things like that, that sounds an awful lot like a coup and it could well be treason,” she suggested.
Treason can mean assisting the enemies of America or “levying war” against the United States.
Attorney General William Barr has ordered a federal attorney to investigate why the Department of Justice and FBI decided to investigate Russian collusion, which focused on the election campaign of then-candidate Donald Trump.
Strzok was not only a lead investigator with the Mueller inquiry but also assessed whether then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was violating the law by using a private email server for the classified business of state. (RELATED: Strzok: ‘We’ll Stop’ Trump Presidency)
Strzok was fired from the Mueller investigation after his messages with Lisa Page came to light. In one exchange, Strzok called called Trump “a fucking idiot.”
Last week, testimony came to light that revealed former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe made the decision to dismiss Strzok, not special counsel Robert Mueller.
Cheney said there is much more to discover about the chain of events.
Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney holds a news conference to discuss the decision by the House Judiciary Committee to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, May 8, 2019. Twitter screencapture.
“And I think that we need to know more, we need to know what was Jim Comey’s role in all of this? These people reported to him, Andy McCabe reported to him, what was Comey’s role in that?” said Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. “And that is what the attorney general is going to be focused on.”