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Dick Morris: FBI Rogue Spooks Caught Red-Handed Leaking

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For the past year, a central question has been: Who is leaking to the media from the FBI? Now we are beginning to get an answer: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the star-crossed lovers high up in the FBI have been caught through their newly released texts to one another to be among the key sieves.

In our book “Rogue Spooks: The Intelligence War on Donald Trump,” Eileen and I write that rogue agents in the FBI were conspiring with willing left-wing reporters to spread false and biased information about President Trump. Now, thank to their texts, the truth of that charge is becoming clear. Among the main leakers were Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and among the recipients was Devlin Barrett of The Washington Post.

The litany of their leaks, spelled out in their own emails to one another, demonstrates the intimacy of the co-ordination between the FBI leakers and their newspaper recipients. At times, they almost all seem to be working together. And they were: To hype the phony story of Putin’s meddling in the U.S. election and to advance the storyline that Trump was in on the conspiracy.

For example, on Oct. 28, 2016, a week before the election, Page and Strzok were texting as they were leaking. The date is important. That is precisely when the FBI announced that it was re-opening the investigation of Hillary’s private server emails.

At 5:19 p.m., Page texted “still on the phone with Devlin. Mike’s phone is ON FIRE.”

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“Devlin” refers to Devlin Barrett, a key reporter with The Post.

Ten minutes later, Strzok texts back “you might wanna tell Devlin he should turn on CNN, there’s news on.”

Lisa replied a minute later: “He knows. He just got handed a note.”

“Ha. He is asking about it now?” Stroke texts.

Do you think Peter Strzok and Lisa Page should be required to testify to Congress about these leaks?

Lisa texts back: “Yeah. It was pretty funny. Coming now.”

Then, at 5:36 p.m., Devlin Barrett himself weighs in: “This is a possibility, per sources.”

The re-opening of the email investigation was only one of many leaks coming from Strzok/Page.

A few days before, on Oct. 23, 2016, Devlin Barrett tweeted: “Scoop: McAuliffe PAC gave $467,500 to campaign of wife of senior FBI official who oversaw Clinton email probe.”

McAuliffe is Terry McAuliffe, then governor of Virginia, and formerly the chief fundraiser for both Clintons. The senior FBI official is Andrew McCabe, who was Lisa Page’s boss.

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Immediately, the FBI pair begin texting about whether McCabe should recuse himself from the email probe, as Comey’s chief of staff James Rybicki was recommending.

In the texts, Page told Strzok “Rybicki just called to check in. He very clearly 100% believes that Andy should be recused because of the ‘perception.'” The Strzok/Page emails reflect their disbelief that anyone would recuse themselves over such a matter.

Strzok replies with shock to Page’s suggestion that McCabe recuse himself, texting “God.”

Then Lisa says, with evident self-satisfaction, that their leaking has found its mark: “Our statement affected the stock market.”

McCabe did recuse himself but only one week before the election.

On Oct. 24, 2016, Page texted Strzok about another leak and were conscious of hiding the role in leaking  the story.  Page wrote: “article is out, but hidden behind paywall so can’t read it.” (In other words, nobody can tell that it we who are leaking).

Stroke texts back: “Wsj. Boy that was fast. Should I ‘find’ it and tell the team?” (In other words, should I admit that we did it?)

Discussing how to tell his team about the leak without taking responsibility, Strzok writes: “I can get it (the article) like I do every other article that hits any Google News alerts, seriously,” Strzok texted, adding he did not want his team hearing about the article “from someone else.”

(WSJ refers, of course to Wall Street Journal where Devlin Barrett worked before joining The Washington Post staff).

Now we are beginning to learn who the rogue spooks were who held the nation in their thrall as they leaked breathlessly about their investigation of President Trump. Congress needs to call Strzok and Page as witnesses to explain the context of each leak and show the country how it has been duped by the FBI and the national media.

Dick Morris is a former adviser to President Bill Clinton as well as a political author, pollster and consultant. His most recent book, “Rogue Spooks,” was written with his wife, Eileen McGann.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.

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Dick Morris is a former adviser to President Bill Clinton as well as a political author, pollster and consultant. His most recent book, "50 Shades of Politics," was written with his wife, Eileen McGann.




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