The "secret society" text message between FBI agents that has lathered up Republicans and conspiracy buffs might have been, simply, a joke, ABC News reported.
ABC obtained a copy of the text.
"Are you even going to give out your calendars? Seems kind of depressing. Maybe it should just be the first meeting of the secret society," FBI lawyer Lisa Page texted FBI agent Peter Strzok.
That was it, ABC reports; no other preceding or subsequent texts about a secret society between Strzok and Page, who were having an affair and whose five months of missing texts are at the heart of a Department of Justice massive investigation, which has now been chalked up to a technical glitch.
ABC's report comes a day after Sen. Ron Johnson began walking back his assertion of a "secret society." Johnson previously said an informant had validated the "secret society" text with information of offsite meetings between FBI agents.
Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security committee, now says he's not sure what the informant meant.
But not after stirring up Republicans with tales of a dark side to the FBI and Justice Department.
"That's part of the corruption we're talking about within the high levels of the FBI, possibly the Department of Justice. It's just hard to tell," Johnson told conservative radio host Jay Weber earlier this week. "These are hard partisans in these agencies and they're carrying out a political agenda, looks like to me."
After promising a full investigation into the clandestine meetings of the secret society, Johnson said his committee's focus will now return to investigating Hillary Clinton's emails.
"Everything I take with a grain of salt," Johnson said Wednesday. "[But] I've heard from an individual that ... there was a group of managers within the FBI that were holding meetings off site. When Strzok and Page had described a secret society, that didn't surprise me because I had corroborating information."
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