Sen. Ron Johnson: AG Sessions May Not Be Able to Trust His Own Justice Department [Video]
During an appearance this week on Fox News, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson discussed the potential existence of politically biased operatives “burrowed” within the Justice Department, noting that Attorney General Jeff Sessions might not even be able to rely on his own department.
The Wisconsin Republican was speaking Tuesday with host Bret Baier about recent revelations regarding the political bias of Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two vehemently anti-Trump FBI agents who were having an affair and played pivotal roles in the investigation into alleged Trump campaign collusion.
“When you see this kind of bias, this kind of corruption at the FBI, you have to ask the question: Are there similar individuals — highly biased, political operatives — burrowed into the Department of Justice as well?” Johnson told the “Special Report” host.
He went on to question whether the attorney general is able to trust the employees who work for him.
“Does Attorney General Sessions really have a department he can rely on and trust as well?” he asked. “This is deeply concerning and we’re going to continue to dig.”
Later, Johnson indicated that as the head of the DOJ, Sessions has every right to fire employees who have “enormous political bias” or are “not doing their job.”
Johnson’s concerns over potential bias at the DOJ stems from new revelations regarding Strzok and Page, who were removed from the investigation into Russian collusion after texts between the two — which included strong anti-Trump rhetoric — were discovered.
These messages have prompted Republicans and White House allies to call into question the impartiality of the ongoing investigation.
In one of those texts, Strzok reportedly implied to Page that a “secret society” existed among federal agents to prevent Donald Trump from entering the White House.
“What this is all about is further evidence of corruption, more than bias, but corruption at the highest levels of the FBI,” Johnson said.
“Now a secret society? We have an informant that’s talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off site,” the senator added. “There is so much smoke here, there is so much suspicion.”
On Wednesday, Johnson clarified his comments, stating that his reference to a “secret society” were based only on the words of an informant and the actual text exchange between Strzok and Page.
Meanwhile, the DOJ revealed last week that they have somehow lost five months worth of texts between the two FBI agents. Johnson received a letter from the department announcing that texts between Strzok and Page from Dec. 14, 2016, until May 17, 2017, were no longer available.
Republicans on Capitol Hill have cried foul over the matter, and now the FBI must prove that the disappearance of these text messages between Strzok and Page was not a result of FBI malfeasance, according to Fox News.
“It is possible these text messages that are missing, perhaps they really were lost. Perhaps it is another strange coincidence,” Rep. John Ratcliffe said this week on Fox News. “It makes it harder and harder for us to explain one strange coincidence after another.”
Sessions, for his part, indicated on Monday that he had discussed the missing text messages with Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, as well as whether or not the texts could be recovered.
“We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source,” he said in a statement.
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