FBI officials’ texts not all kept, senator says

They are missing for 5 months as Trump probe geared up.

WASHINGTON — The FBI did not retain text messages exchanged by two senior officials involved in the probes of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump for a five-month period ending the day a special counsel was appointed to investigate possible connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to a new congressional letter.

The letter from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray indicates the Justice Department has turned over to lawmakers a new batch of texts from senior FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The messages have not been made public.

As the Washington Post reported in December, Strzok was removed from the Trump probe after internal investigators discovered he and Page, who were romantically involved , exchanged anti-Trump, pro-Clinton texts during investigations of both presidential candidates. Later that month, the Justice Department provided Congress with hundreds of pages of messages. Republicans said the texts revealed political bias at the bureau’s highest levels.

Johnson’s weekend letter said his committee received 384 pages of new Strzok-Page texts late Friday. The lawmaker is asking the FBI to explain in more detail why it “did not preserve text messages between Ms. Page and Mr. Strzok between approximately December 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017.”

May 17 is a key date in the Russia probe: It’s the day Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein tapped Robert Mueller III as a special counsel to take over the investigation.

Much occurred during the months the Strzok-Page texts were not retained. Then-FBI Director James Comey met repeatedly with President Donald Trump, the Russia probe intensified and began to focus on former national security adviser Michael Flynn and, in early May, Trump fired Comey.