Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) revealed on Fox News Wednesday that as many as thirteen different FBI officials were leaking to one reporter, according to the Department of Justice inspector general’s report on the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation.
He presented that information to push back against spin from fired FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s lawyer, who claimed that an April 2017 text message referring to the FBI’s “media strategy” was about combating leaks.
“The argument that Mr. Strzok’s making just doesn’t hold water, doesn’t pass the smell test,” Jordan said.
Newly revealed text messages show Strzok discussing media leaks with his paramour, former FBI attorney Lisa Page. “I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go,” one of the texts reads.
“The term ‘media leak strategy’ in Mr. Strzok’s text refers to a Department-wide initiative to detect and stop leaks to the media,” Aitan Goelman, Strzok’s attorney, said on Tuesday. “The president and his enablers are once again peddling unfounded conspiracy theories to mislead the American people.”
Jordan pushed back on the claim.
“Remember, this is the same guy who said ‘we will stop Trump,’ this is the same people who said that Trump should lose 100 million to zero,” he argued. “So their bias was pretty darn clear from some of the earlier text messages we’ve seen. Now we see that there was a media strategy, a leak strategy to influence this whole thing.”
As evidence that the leaks were coordinated, Jordan pointed to the Department of Justice inspector general’s report that cited “thirteen different FBI people who were working with one reporter.”
“If that doesn’t point to some kind of media strategy, leak strategy, I don’t know what does,” he added.
In response to Goelman, Jordan laughed, “If their strategy was to stop the leaks, they sure didn’t do a very good job ’cause they were everywhere.”
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