While many on the Left are getting bored with the aftermath of the Russian investigation, it's become increasingly obvious that former FBI agents and lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have indicated members of other intelligence agencies may have been leaking information to the media.
Republican congressional leaders are calling for a new investigation of media leaks surrounding the Russia investigation -- possibly emanating from the intelligence community -- pointing to internal text messages they say indicate a more widespread problem.
"[T]hese texts and emails demonstrate the need to investigate leaks from agencies or entities other than FBI," Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote to Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael K. Atkinson, pointedly asking whether he's launched a probe "into these apparent leaks."
Attorney General Bill Barr testified last week, under questioning from Grassley, that the Justice Department has “multiple criminal leak investigations” underway concerning media contact by department officials during the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
But Johnson and Grassley, in suggesting a broader culture of leaking, pointed Atkinson in their latest letter to messages between former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page hinting other government agencies may have been leaking to the press -- and the FBI could have been aware. This follows a previous letter from the same lawmakers regarding Strzok and Page messages indicating potential efforts to monitor members of the incoming Trump administration during briefings, as reported by Fox News.
The specific messages include a December 2016 text, in which Strzok told Page, "Think our sisters have begun leaking like mad. Scorned and worried and political, they’re kicking in to overdrive." Fox News previously reported on that exchange.
In April 2017, Strzok also sent an email commenting on an article about the Trump campaign and Russia by saying, "I’m beginning to think the agency got info a lot earlier than we thought and hasn’t shared it completely with us. Might explain all these weird/seemingly incorrect leads all these media folks have. Would also highlight agency as source of some of the leaks."
Johnson and Grassley voiced concern about what exactly these messages mean, though their letter being addressed to the intelligence community's chief watchdog indicates they suspect Strzok and Page were referring to either the CIA or some other intelligence agency.
Page and Strzok were attempting some kind of intelligence agency coup against Trump and this is the aftermath of that failed venture. These two love birds knew the CIA was leaking to the media and they seemed to be very satisfied with the news.
If these leaks came from the CIA, that would likely mean they actually came from former CIA boss John Brennan. In other words, the CIA was probably leaking Russia-Trump stories to the media to one-up Trump.
Strange to think these texts between Strzok and Page have existed since April 2017. If we're only now seeing these texts because of Grassley and Johnson, what does that say about Strzok and Page?