White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said that the documents he has reviewed in regards to the criminal inquiry into the Russia investigation spell “real trouble” for the FBI agents who conducted the investigation.
The Inquiry
The Russia investigation, which ultimately found no evidence of collusion between the Russian government and President Trump‘s 2016 campaign, is now being scrutinized in a criminal inquiry.
An Inspector General report on the origins of the investigation previously found 17 “inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s FISA warrants against Carter Page, a former Trump campaign aide. One of the omissions was that the government knew Page “had been approved as an operational contact for the other agency from 2008 to 2013, and that Page had provided information to the other agency concerning his prior contacts with certain Russian intelligence officers, one of which overlapped with facts asserted in the FISA application.”
Despite being made aware of this fact in an email from the CIA, FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith did not report it. Instead, he altered the email, removing the information proving Page’s ties to the agency. Last month, Clinesmith pleaded guilty to falsifying evidence.
At the time, Attorney General William Barr stated that while Clinesmith’s plea was not “earth-shattering,” it was “an indication that things are moving along at the proper pace, as dictated by the facts in this investigation.”
The criminal inquiry is still ongoing.
Revelations from Meadows
In an interview with Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo, Meadows said that he could not give any updates on U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation. He did say that documents he has reviewed were a bad sign for FBI officials involved in the Russia investigation.
“Additional documents that I’ve been able to review say that a number of the players, the Peter Strzoks, the Andy McCabes, the James Comeys, and even others in the administration previously are in real trouble because of their willingness to participate in an unlawful act and I use the word unlawful at best, it broke all kinds of protocols and at worst people should go to jail as I mentioned previously,” Meadows said.
The interview with Meadows was in response to former FBI agent Peter Strzok’s latest claims during a media tour promoting his new book. The disgraced former agent who helped start the Russia investigation spent his tour defending it and arguing that the president is “compromised” by Russia.
Meadows also stated that the documents he has seen do not support Strzok, who was fired from the FBI in 2018 when anti-Trump messages surfaced that he sent to a colleague whom he was having an affair with.
The president has “encouraged not only declassification, but full transparency. He has nothing to hide. I can tell you, it’s real easy for Peter Strzok to go on 60 Minutes when he doesn’t have to raise his right hand and tell the truth. In all of this interview, I can tell you this. It’s not backed up by the facts. It’s not backed up by documents that I’ve seen. And ultimately his house of cards will come falling down,” Meadows said.
