Text Messages Raise Questions About FBI Employees' Political Bias
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WASHINGTON, D.C. (CBSMiami) -- Newly revealed text messages are raising questions about the political bias of two key FBI employees who worked on both the Mueller Russia probe and last year's Hillary Clinton email investigation.
For more than a year leading up to the election, FBI Agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page disparaged Donald Trump in text messages obtained by CBS News.
In a text from 2015, Strzok called Bernie Sanders "an idiot like Trump."
In March 2016, Page texted "God, Trump is a loathsome human," and "this man cannot be president."
On Election Day, Strzok texted, "OMG this is expletive terrifying."
During the campaign, Strzok led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and personally changed then FBI Director James Comey's description of her actions from "grossly negligent," which could carry criminal penalties to the softer "extremely careless."
Later, he worked on Robert Mueller's team investigating possible Trump campaign ties to Russia but was dismissed when the text messages were first revealed.
Page also worked on the Mueller team.
Many of the messages track the campaign. When Scott Baio spoke at the GOP convention, Page wrote, "Charles in charge?! That's the best they can do?"
"Its PATHETIC," Strzok responded.
After the last Clinton/Trump debate, Page wrote, "Oh hot damn. HRC is throwing down saying Trump is in bed with Russia."
The texts are now the subject of a Justice Department Ethics investigation and were sent to lawmakers Tuesday night.
On Wednesday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will testify before Congress where Republicans are likely to renew calls to investigate how the Clinton email probe was handled.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from both the Clinton investigation and the Russia probe, has directed the head of the FBI to investigate Strzok's conduct.