Two FBI officials who disparaged President Trump in text messages reportedly exchanged other messages in 2016 praising former FBI Director James Comey and criticizing Congress.
The two officials — FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page — in an exchange mocked Congress as “worthless,” The Associated Press reported.
In the exchange in July of 2016 — while Comey was defending the bureau’s decisions regarding Hillary Clinton’s private email server to Congress — Page wrote in a text message that Congress is “utterly worthless.”
{mosads}Strzok responded: “Less than worthless.”
They also offered praise for Comey, referring to him as “brilliant.”
“God he is SO good,” Strzok said. “I know,” Page responded. “Brilliant public speaker. And brilliant distillation of fact.”
The exchange is part of pages of text messages the Justice Department gave to Congress.
The discovery of messages critical of Trump between Strzok and Page led special counsel Robert Mueller to remove Strzok from his team. Those texts have also fueled accusations among GOP lawmakers that Mueller’s probe is tainted by partisanship.
A handful of Republicans have said their back and forth reveals bias against the president within top levels of the government.
Some GOP lawmakers have particularly homed in on the fact that the two officials were involved in the federal investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information with an email server as secretary of State as well as Mueller’s probe into possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Trump fired Comey last year. In recent weeks, Comey has taken to Twitter to comment on various political events.