by
Luke Rosiak
Then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe tasked the mistress of lead
agent Peter Strzok to stay apprised of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s
private server — a decision that other bureau officials took issue with
at the time, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s
bombshell report.
McCabe was supposed to be insulated from the probe by two levels of
management: Strzok worked for counterintelligence head Bill Priestap,
who worked for national security head Michael Steinbach, who reported up
to McCabe. However, Strzok communicated about the probe with his
mistress, Lisa Page, who worked directly for McCabe and acted as a
liaison for the Clinton investigation for the deputy director.
The
report says:
Lisa Page, who was Special Counsel to
McCabe, became involved in the Midyear investigation after McCabe
became the Deputy Director in February 2016. Page told the OIG that part
of her function was to serve as a liaison between the Midyear team and
McCabe.
Page acknowledged that her role upset
senior FBI officials, but told the OIG that McCabe relied on her to
ensure that he had the information he needed to make decisions, without
it being filtered through multiple layers of management.
Several witnesses told the OIG that Page circumvented the official
chain of command, and that Strzok communicated important Midyear case
information to her, and thus to McCabe, without Priestap’s or
Steinbach’s knowledge. McCabe said that he was aware of complaints about
Page, and that he valued her ability to “spot issues” and bring them to
his attention when others did not.
McCabe has been the subject of concerns about political bias in the
FBI’s handling of the case because of his family’s ties to the Clintons.
Around the time of the investigation, McCabe’s wife received $700,000
from Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of the Clintons who ran Hillary
Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. The money was for McCabe’s wife to
run for state senate, an unusual amount of money for that office.
The IG report makes clear that McCabe intentionally essentially used
Page as a mole to bypass multiple subordinates to feed him information
about the probe.
It also contains an organizational chart detailing the chain of
command on the Clinton emails investigation, annotated by The Daily
Caller News Foundation here to highlight the way in which Page’s role
was to be McCabe’s eyes and ears instead of relying on the normal
channels.
Much of the most blatant anti-Trump rhetoric from FBI agents involved
in the case has come from the text messages of Strzok and Page. Page
made no secret where her allegiances lie, writing: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”
Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
The two exchanged tens of thousands of texts about the matter.
PoliticsCorrupt: McCabe Used Strzok’s Mistress To Keep Unauthorized Tabs on Clinton Probe
By Luke Rosiak
June 17, 2018 at 3:43pm
Then-Deputy
FBI Director Andrew McCabe tasked the mistress of lead agent Peter
Strzok to stay apprised of the probe into Hillary Clinton’s private
server — a decision that other bureau officials took issue with at the
time, according to the Department of Justice Inspector General’s
bombshell report.
McCabe was supposed to be insulated from the probe by two levels of
management: Strzok worked for counterintelligence head Bill Priestap,
who worked for national security head Michael Steinbach, who reported up
to McCabe. However, Strzok communicated about the probe with his
mistress, Lisa Page, who worked directly for McCabe and acted as a
liaison for the Clinton investigation for the deputy director.
The report says:
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Lisa Page, who was Special Counsel to
McCabe, became involved in the Midyear investigation after McCabe
became the Deputy Director in February 2016. Page told the OIG that part
of her function was to serve as a liaison between the Midyear team and
McCabe.
Page acknowledged that her role upset
senior FBI officials, but told the OIG that McCabe relied on her to
ensure that he had the information he needed to make decisions, without
it being filtered through multiple layers of management.
TRENDING: Trump: I’m Cutting All Aid to Countries Abusing America’s Immigration System [Video]
Several witnesses told the OIG that
Page circumvented the official chain of command, and that Strzok
communicated important Midyear case information to her, and thus to
McCabe, without Priestap’s or Steinbach’s knowledge. McCabe said that he
was aware of complaints about Page, and that he valued her ability to
“spot issues” and bring them to his attention when others did not.
Advertisement – story continues below
McCabe has been the subject of concerns about political bias in the
FBI’s handling of the case because of his family’s ties to the Clintons.
Around the time of the investigation, McCabe’s wife received $700,000
from Terry McAuliffe, a close friend of the Clintons who ran Hillary
Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. The money was for McCabe’s wife to
run for state senate, an unusual amount of money for that office.
The IG report makes clear that McCabe intentionally essentially used
Page as a mole to bypass multiple subordinates to feed him information
about the probe.
It also contains an organizational chart detailing the chain of
command on the Clinton emails investigation, annotated by The Daily
Caller News Foundation here to highlight the way in which Page’s role
was to be McCabe’s eyes and ears instead of relying on the normal
channels.
Much of the most blatant anti-Trump rhetoric from FBI agents involved
in the case has come from the text messages of Strzok and Page. Page
made no secret where her allegiances lie, writing: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”
Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
The two exchanged tens of thousands of texts about the matter.
Texts
show that Page was conflicted about taking the job with McCabe, because
she is a lawyer and he wanted her to be his “special assistant.”“ The Deputy Director picked ME to work for him,” Page wrote on Feb. 3. But “I’m a lawyer, it’s my identity.”
RELATED: Peter Strzok Loses Security Clearance as Conspiracy To Harm Trump Unravels
Strzok said it would be tough to get McCabe to call her his “special
counsel.” But ultimately — with Page considering turning down the job if
she could not get the title — that’s what happened. “Let [McCabe] take
the lead on role and expectations.”
It is unclear why it was so important to McCabe that information
about the Clinton probe not be “filtered through multiple layers of
management,” the IG report said, but officials may have believed that it
would be inappropriate or abnormal to share certain information with
him.
The IG report said numerous people in the FBI were telling McCabe to
recuse himself from the Clinton probe due to the appearance of conflict.
McCabe resisted recusal and got into an “argument” and tense
conversations with FBI officials.
FBI General Counsel James Baker “had a series of conversations with
McCabe culminating in a ‘very intense’ conversation in which Baker told
McCabe that he believed he needed to recuse himself and that it was
better that he do it ‘than have the boss order him to do it.’ He said
McCabe ‘was not happy about it’ and ‘had lots of questions’ and they had
a ‘good argument back and forth,’” the report said.
Then-FBI Director James Comey said in the report that he would have
taken McCabe off the investigation sooner had he known about the donations
to McCabe’s wife.
McCabe has not addressed whether he knew that Page and Strzok were
having an affair and whether that is why Page had such a knack to “spot
issues” in the Clinton probe.
McCabe was fired in March 2018 for displayed what the IG called a “lack
of candor” during interviews about his authorization of an FBI official
to speak with The Wall Street Journal in October 2016 about the Clinton
email investigation and is currently suing the government.
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