Associates of two FBI employees whose September 2016 text message declared then-President Barack Obama "wants to know everything we're doing" say the reference is to preparation to brief Obama about Russian interference in that year's election, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The contention is at odds with Sen. Ron Johnson, R.-Wis., who disclosed the text Wednesday as part of a 25-page report — and declared it raises questions about meddling by Obama in the federal Hillary Clinton email investigation, which was not an active probe at that time.
The report from Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, highlights previously cited texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his girlfriend, Lisa Page, a bureau lawyer, the Journal reported.
Strzok supervised the investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server , and was on special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating any ties between Trump associates and Russia before he was removed in July.
Republicans and President Donald Trump himself have cited the messages as evidence the Russian probe amounts to a wider plot to undermine him.
But the associates of Strzok and Page told the Journal the exchange referred to the president's wanting information on Russia election meddling, which the FBI was heavily involved in over that period.
In August and September 2016, the FBI was no longer actively investigating the Clinton matter.
"The time line Sen. Johnson put out makes no sense," CNN correspondent Evan Peretz said on "OutFront" on Wednesday night, adding: "It appears this is yet another one of these text messages that is being misinterpreted."
The Wednesday report from Johnson also looked anew at the July statement from former FBI Director James Comey about Clinton, suggesting it softened the description of her actions. And it asked why the FBI did not use a grand jury to compel testimony but instead offered immunity deals.
"The information available to the committee at this time raises serious questions about how the FBI applied the rule of law in its investigation of classified information on Secretary Clinton's private email server," the report said.
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