A fired FBI agent who worked on the Russia investigation texted a colleague about people within the government having "partisan axes to grind" in the days before President Donald Trump took office.
The Hill obtained copies of several previously unreleased messages between Peter Strzok, who was fired from the bureau in August, and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
"He, like us, is concerned with over sharing. Doesn't want Clapper giving CR cuts to WH. All political, just shows our hand and potentially makes enemies," Strzok wrote to Page on Jan. 3, 2017 after an apparent conversation with top FBI official William Priestap.
It's unclear what "CR" referred to, but The Hill's John Solomon hypothesized that it might mean classified raw intelligence.
Page wrote back: "Yeah, but keep in mind we were going to put that in the doc on Friday, with potentially larger distribution than just the dni."
Strzok's response was: "The question is should we, particularly to the entirety of the lame duck usic with partisan axes to grind."
"USIC" stands for U.S. intelligence community.
Strzok was a key player in the FBI's Russia investigation, which began in 2016 with surveillance on certain members of the Trump campaign over claims that it was colluding with the Russians to defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump and many Republicans argue that the investigation started as a witch hunt because, as they say, there was no collusion.
Strzok and Page exchanged thousands of text messages during 2016 and 2017. At least some of them discussed their distaste for Trump, which has led the GOP to accuse them of being part of an FBI conspiracy to take down Trump.
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