Text messages critical of President Donald Trump that were exchanged between two FBI officials who were working on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation “cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation,” Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in the forthcoming report Thursday, according to Bloomberg.
In an excerpt of the DOJ IG report — published by Bloomberg — that’s set to be released later Thursday afternoon, Horowitz said that he did not find any evidence that the messages exchanged between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page directly affected the investigation.
“We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that improper considerations, including political bias, directly affected the specific investigative actions we reviewed,” Horowitz said. “The conduct by these employees cast a cloud over the entire FBI investigation.”
Once the texts were discovered, Mueller removed Strzok from the Russia probe and Page is no longer at the FBI. Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have pointed to the texts as proof of an anti-Trump bias within the FBI.
