DOJ uncovers missing FBI text messages

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice has found months’ worth of previously lost text messages between two former FBI agents, communication that showed bias against the president. The department’s inspector general on Thursday informed Congress about finding the missing correspondence between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Strzok was a lead investigator in the Hillary Clinton email probe that exonerated the former presidential candidate, and both Strzok and Page previously worked for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The messages between Strzok and Page first came to light during the inspector general’s investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe. Mueller removed the two agents from the Russia investigation last year in light of their apparent bias against President Donald Trump in favor of Clinton, but the details didn’t become public until this month. Inspector General Michael Horowitz told congressional committees Thursday the missing messages recovered by his office cover a period between December 2016 and May 2017. Lawmakers discovered the gap in messages between the pair when six congressional committees received a second round of transcripts from the Justice Department over the weekend. Trump called the missing messages “one of the biggest stories in a long time,” and Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to retrieve them.