U.S.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks on the U.S.
system for asylum-seekers at the Executive Office for Immigration
Review in Falls Church, Virginia, U.S. October 12,
2017.
Reuters/Jonathan
Ernst
An error that prevented the FBI from saving five months
worth of text messages exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok
and lawyer Lisa Page reportedly affected many other phones at
the bureau between June 2016 and May 2017.
Republican lawmakers have focused on the Strzok-Page
text messages in recent weeks because the two were found to be
sharing anti-Trump sentiments during the 2016 US
election.
President Donald Trump and his allies sounded alarms
over the missing Strzok-Page texts, which they characterized as
evidence of political bias among top law-enforcement
officials.
News that the FBI failed to preserve five months worth of text
messages exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa
Page ignited fierce rebukes this week from Attorney General Jeff
Sessions, who said
he would "leave no stone unturned" to figure out why the
texts were not saved.
But according to a US Justice Department official
cited by BuzzFeed News on Wednesday, "thousands" of phones at
the FBI were affected by the apparent error that prevented
messages from being preserved.
The official reportedly said the error occurred between June 2016
and May 2017, which would include the missing Strzok-Page text
messages that were sent between December 2016 and May 2017.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a voicemail
and email sent by Business Insider on Wednesday night.
The missing Strzok-Page text messages caused alarm among some
Republican lawmakers who have sought to bolster claims of
anti-Trump bias at the FBI, the Justice Department, and special
counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian interference in the US
election. Those assertions stem from revelations that Strzok and
Page expressed to each other their strong opposition to Trump
during the 2016 election.
"Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers
Lisa Page and Peter Strzok," Trump asked
his Twitter followers on Tuesday night.
Trump loyalists
quickly weaponized the development, calling for a second
special counsel in the Russia probe.
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