Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says that a whistleblower has told Congress about secret meetings between FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials who allegedly gathered to discuss ways to undermine President Trump following his victory in the 2016 election.
Johnson’s comments come after House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said two FBI agents accused of anti-Trump bias made reference in text messages to a “secret society” within the FBI and DOJ in the aftermath of Trump’s election.
Speaking Tuesday on Fox New Channel’s “Special Report,” Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said he has an informant to back those claims up.
“The secret society — we have an informant talking about a group holding secret meetings off-site,” Johnson said.
“We have to continue to dig into it,” he added. “This is not a distraction. This is biased, potentially corruption at the highest levels of the FBI.”
Johnson joined several GOP lawmakers in calling for a second special counsel to investigate the FBI’s handling of the investigation into whether Trump campaign officials had improper contacts with Russians during the election.
That probe is currently being led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
“Robert Mueller used to run the FBI,” Johnson said. “He’s in no position to do an investigation over this kind of misconduct. I think at this point in time, we probably should be looking at a special counsel to undertake this investigation, but Congress is going to have to continue to dig.”
FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have attracted the scrutiny of GOP lawmakers for exchanging text messages that were disparaging of Trump and in which they appeared to discuss efforts to undermine him. Other messages also disparaged other political figures, including Democrats.
This week, the DOJ’s inspector general informed congressional investigators that the FBI had lost five months’ worth of texts between Strzok and Page, further inflaming GOP anger at the FBI.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has launched an investigation into the missing texts.