Rod Rosenstein authorized release of anti-Trump text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein authorized the release of text messages exchanged between two senior FBI employees that were critical of Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, court documents show.

The former No 2 at the Justice Department said in a court filing submitted on Friday that he made the decision to share the messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were having an affair, in order to protect them.

Rosenstein said that the text messages were going to be released by Congress and he wanted to give it to the news media so that lawmakers could not cherrypick certain texts to make the Justice Department look bad.

Page reacted to the news of Rosenstein’s decision on Saturday, tweeting: ‘All I can say is this: I very much look forward to Rod’s deposition.’  

The court filing was made as part of Strzok’s lawsuit against the Justice Department.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in a court filing on Friday that he approved the release of text messages between former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok

Page (left) was an FBI lawyer and worked on both the Clinton email investigation and for Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the Trump-Russia probe. She had an affair with Peter Strzok (right), an FBI agent who was removed from the Mueller probe over the existence of their pro-Clinton text messages

Page was an FBI lawyer and worked on both the Clinton email investigation and for Special Counsel Robert Mueller on the Trump-Russia probe. She had an affair with Peter Strzok, an FBI agent who was removed from the Mueller probe over the existence of their pro-Clinton text messages.

Last year, both Page and Strzok filed lawsuits against their former bosses.

Strzok filed a suit last summer charging that the bureau caved to ‘unrelenting pressure’ from the president when it fired him.

Rosenstein said he authorized the release of the text messages because he believed they were going to be released by Congress and wanted to reveal them in their entirety so as not to make the Justice Department look bad

Rosenstein said he authorized the release of the text messages because he believed they were going to be released by Congress and wanted to reveal them in their entirety so as not to make the Justice Department look bad

Strzok and Page expressed anti-Trump sentiments in their tweets, leading supporters of the president to allege they were involved in a conspiracy to bring him down

Strzok and Page expressed anti-Trump sentiments in their tweets, leading supporters of the president to allege they were involved in a conspiracy to bring him down

The suit from Peter Strzok also alleges he was unfairly punished for expressing his political opinions, and that the Justice Department violated his privacy when it shared hundreds of his text messages with reporters.

Among those texts were message he sent to his lover, Page, which said ‘F TRUMP,’ called the then-presidential candidate ‘awful’ and said of his campaign to win the election: ‘We’ll stop it.’

Last month, Page also filed her own lawsuit.

In a 23-page court filing, Page’s attorneys spell out how on December 12, 2017, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ spokeswoman invited reporters to the Department of Justice’s headquarters after normal business hours and showed them the texts.

This release led to years of ‘demeaning’ tweets from President Trump, forced Page into therapy and left her looking for work, the lawsuit said.

Page reacted to the news of Rosenstein's decision on Saturday, tweeting: 'All I can say is this: I very much look forward to Rod’s deposition.'

Page reacted to the news of Rosenstein’s decision on Saturday, tweeting: ‘All I can say is this: I very much look forward to Rod’s deposition.’

She’s seeking more than $1,000 in damages, as well as attorneys fees and other costs associated with legal action.

Page’s lawsuit recalls how information slowly seeped out – the text messages had been given to the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General as they were doing oversight on the Clinton email investigation.

The lawsuit said that senior DOJ officials knew about the text messages and let White House officials know. The White House then tipped off the media, with the New York Times reporting on December 2 that Strzok had been removed from the Mueller probe following ‘the discovery of text messages in which Mr. Strzok and a colleague reacted to news events, like presidential debates, in ways that could appear critical of Mr. Trump.’

The same day the Washington Post reported that Strzok had been communicating with Page, who he was having an affair with.

The lawsuit points out that these stories came on the heels of Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleading guilty of lying to the FBI.

Trump used the Strzok-Page revelations to push back on bad news coming from the Mueller probe.

The news stories about the lovers’ text messages opened the door to Congressional committees asking for copies of the texts, which in turn allowed the DOJ to say that Capitol Hill first leaked them when, on December 12, some of the contents were released.

What really happened, according to the lawsuit, is that then-DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores ‘summoned a select group of reporters to the Department’s offices.’

‘There, they allowed the reporters to view the 375 text messages. The reporters were told they were not permitted to remove or copy the messages and could not source the messages to DOJ,’ the lawsuit said, describing this as a ‘clandestine approach.’

F TRUMP, HE’S A D****E AND WE WILL STOP HIM: THE EXPLOSIVE FBI LOVERS’ TEXT

Strzok to Page: God that’s a great article. Thanks for sharing. And F TRUMP.

Strzok to Page: Just went to a Southern Virginia Walmart. I could SMELL the Trump support.

Page to Strzok: Trump’s not ever going to become president, right?

Strzok replies: No. No, he won’t. We’ll stop it.

Page to Strzok: God trump is a loathsome human.

Strzok replied: Yet he many win. Good for Hillary.’

Page to Strzok: omg he’s an idiot.

Strzok replied: He’s awful.  

Strzok to Page: God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0. 

Strzok to Page [during Republican national convention]: Oooh, TURN IT ON, TURN IT ON!!! THE DOUCHEBAGS ARE ABOUT TO COME OUT. You can tell by the excitable clapping.

Page: My god, I’m so embarrassed for them. These are like second-run stars. Nothing the B-list to relate to the kids these days.

Page: And wow, Donald Trump is in an enormous douche.  

Strzok to Page [during Trump-Clinton debate]: I am riled up. Trump is a f***ing idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer.

Strzok: I CAN’T PULL AWAY, WHAT THE F**K HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY (REDACTED)??!?!

Page: I don’t know. But we’ll get it back. We’re America. We rock. 

The suit also alleged Page and Strzok were thrown under the bus by top DOJ officials to help then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein survive a Congressional hearing scheduled for the next day.

‘And the Department could achieve all of this at a relative low cost (in the Department’s view) of the privacy of two FBI employees: Ms. Page, a longtime DOJ and FBI attorney, and Mr. Strzok, a career FBI agent,’ the lawsuit argued.

Page’s attorneys also describe what happened next, noting ‘the president has targeted Ms. Page by name in more than 40 tweets and dozens of interviews, press conferences, and statements from the White House, fueling unwanted media attention that has radically altered her day-to-day life.’

Page resigned from the FBI on May 4, 2018.

The lawsuit said the department’s release of her text messages has caused ‘significant harm and financial loss,’ since she’s suffered ‘reputational damage.’

She’s also lost money from attorneys’ fees related to the investigations and Congressional testimony she provided, childcare costs, the cost of paying a data-privacy service to protect her identity.

Finally the lawsuit said she’s had to pay for ‘therapy to cope with unwanted national media exposure and harassment caused by the December 12 disclosure.’

Nearly two years after becoming a household name, Page reared her head this month, appearing in a Daily Beast interview, tweeting a victory lap after the release of the Inspector General report and then filing the lawsuit.

Last month, Page heralded the Department of Justice Inspector General report that looked into FBI officials’ conduct related to the Russia investigation.

‘For those following along: After two IG investigations; At least a dozen IG lawyers and investigators poring over every text, email, and note I ever wrote; 1000 pages of investigative findings; and the President repeatedly accusing me of bias and treason,’ Page began. 

‘The sum total of findings by IG Horowitz that my personal opinions had any bearing on the course of either the Clinton or Russia investigations? Zero and zero.’

To conclude her two tweets she signed off by writing ‘cool, cool.’ And she included an ‘/end’ sign.

The report, authored by DOJ IG Michael Horowitz, found that while Page and Strzok had shared ‘statements of hostility’ about then-candidate Trump, they weren’t the primary decision-makers as the Russia probe was being opened.

‘We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the four individual investigations,’ the report said in the section where Strzok and Page’s behavior was mentioned.

Last month, Page heralded the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report that looked into FBI officials' conduct related to the Russia investigation

Last month, Page heralded the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report that looked into FBI officials’ conduct related to the Russia investigation

Lisa Page used Twitter to take a victory lap after the IG's report was released Monday. She said it fully vindicates her

Lisa Page used Twitter to take a victory lap after the IG’s report was released Monday. She said it fully vindicates her 

Lisa Page followed that up with a second tweet, where she said the IG found 'zero' proof that her personal opinions had any bearings on the Trump-Russia investigation and the Clinton email investigation

Lisa Page followed that up with a second tweet, where she said the IG found ‘zero’ proof that her personal opinions had any bearings on the Trump-Russia investigation and the Clinton email investigation 

Those four investigations were into Trump campaign associates Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Flynn.

Page also sat down for her first interview, with the Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast, published last month.

In the interview she said it was the president faking an orgasm as he talked about the FBI lovers at a mid-October campaign rally that inspired her to speak out publicly.

‘Honestly, the demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,’ Page told Jong-Fast.

‘It’s almost impossible to describe,’ Page told The Daily Beast. ‘It’s like being punched in the gut. My heart drops to my stomach when I realize he has tweeted about me again. The president of the United States is calling me names to the entire world. He’s demeaning me and my career. It’s sickening.’

‘But it’s also very intimidating because he’s still the president of the United States. And when the president accuses you of treason by name, depite the fact that I know there’s no fathomable way that I have committed any crime at all, let alone treason, he’s still somebody in a position to actually do something about that. To try to further destroy my life. It never goes away or stops, even when he’s not publicly attacking me.’ 

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