The referenced FD-302—a type of FBI form that is a written summation of an interview—was dated Aug. 22, 2017, almost seven months after Flynn’s Jan. 24, 2017, interview. It clearly reads as quotes by the FBI agents describing events before, during, and after the Flynn interview to an unknown FBI official.
One question was answered from the interview of Strzok. An FD-302 of the Jan. 24, 2017, interview of Flynn does exist:
“Strzok conducted the interview and [redacted (probably Pientka)] was primarily responsible for taking notes. Throughout the interview, Flynn had a very “sure” demeanor and did not give any indicators of deception. He did not parse his words or hesitate in any of his answers. He only hedged once, which they documented in the 302. Strzok and [redacted] both had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.”
A final item of note was contained in footnote 1 of the latest filing in the Flynn case:
“Strzok was interviewed on July 19, 2017, in relation to other matters, not as part of the investigation of the defendant or any investigation of Strzok’s conduct.”
Events From Summer of 2017
On May 9, 2017, Rosenstein wrote a letter recommending then-FBI Director James Comey be fired. The subject of the letter was “Restoring Public Confidence in the FBI.” Comey would be fired that day.McCabe held a pivotal role in what has come to be known as Spygate. He directed the activities of Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, and was involved in all aspects of the Russia investigation. He was also mentioned in the now-infamous “insurance policy” text message sent by Strzok to Page referencing an apparent meeting in “Andy’s (McCabe’s) office”:
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office—that there’s no way he gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take the risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
At the time, nobody, including the INSD agents, knew that McCabe had lied, nor were the darker aspects of McCabe’s actions fully known. In light of Comey’s firing, McCabe was now the acting FBI director and was immediately under consideration for the permanent position.
A week later, on May 16, Mueller was interviewed by President Donald Trump and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and was appointed special counsel by Rosenstein the next day.
It’s at this point that things began to get interesting. On July 14, 2017, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz suddenly decided to respond to a letter sent by a group of Democratic senators, calling for an investigation into the recusal of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on any Russia-related matters, more than four months previous.
Horowitz’s letter appears to indicate that he was evaluating the direction of his investigation:
“We are continuing to assess what, if any, additional review would be appropriate for the OIG to undertake and will update you as appropriate.”
What makes this somewhat innocuous-sounding response notable is that it likely marks the date when Horowitz first uncovered the incriminating texts between Strzok and Page.
“After finding a number of politically-oriented text messages between Page and Strzok, the OIG sought from the FBI all text messages between Strzok and Page from their FBI-issued phones through November 30, 2016, which covered the entire period of the Clinton e-mail server investigation.
The FBI produced these text messages on July 20, 2017. Following our review of those text messages, the OIG expanded our request to the FBI to include all text messages between Strzok and Page from November 30, 2016, through the date of the document request, which was July 28, 2017. The OIG received these additional messages on August 10, 2017.”
At some point prior to July 20, 2017, Horowitz had uncovered texts between Strzok and Page that caused him sufficient alarm to request all texts between the two during the Clinton email investigation. Upon receipt and review of these texts, Horowitz then requested all available texts on July 28, 2017, from the pair and received these additional texts 13 days later on Aug.10, 2017.
Discovery of the Text Messages
How Horowitz came to discover the first series of texts is particularly interesting and provides an appropriate backdrop for surrounding events.Lisa Page served as special counsel to McCabe while he was FBI deputy director. According to the inspector general’s February 2018 report on McCabe, sometime in October 2016, McCabe authorized Page to leak information to Barrett—Page did so, thinking she had been granted legal/official authorization.
Page, when confronted with McCabe’s denials of authorization, produced texts refuting the deputy FBI director’s assertion. This is what likely led to the inspector general uncovering the thousands of texts between Strzok and Page.
On July 19, 2017, Strzok was interviewed by an unknown senior assistant special counsel member and an unknown FBI supervisory special agent. As noted in the FD-302, “the purpose of the interview was to collect certain information regarding Strzok’s involvement in various aspects of what has become the Special Counsel’s investigation.”
“On Friday, July 28, 2017, the OIG interviewed McCabe under oath in connection with its ongoing review of various FBI and Department actions in advance of the 2016 Election. The primary focus of the interview was to determine McCabe’s awareness of the existence of certain text messages between Special Counsel and DAD [Strzok] that the OIG had recently discovered.
During the course of the interview, the OIG showed McCabe text messages dated October 27, 28, and 30 from Special Counsel to DAD, indicating that Special Counsel had been in contact with WSJ reporter Barrett and appeared to have been a source for the October 30 WSJ article.”
Horowitz made his initial discovery of the Strzok/Page texts no later than early July 2017. It would appear at least some of these texts implicated or referenced McCabe. Horowitz would receive the second batch of texts on July 20 but had yet to receive the final batch that was later provided to him on Aug 10—which brings us back to that footnote from the Flynn legal filing:
“Strzok was interviewed on July 19, 2017, in relation to other matters, not as part of the investigation of the defendant or any investigation of Strzok’s conduct.”
This disclaimer is somewhat countered by the language contained within the actual FD-302 of the interview with Strzok:
“The purpose of the interview was to collect certain information regarding Strzok’s involvement in various aspects of what has become the Special Counsel’s investigation.”
Based on surrounding events, it seems a reasonable case to make that the purpose of Strzok’s July 19, 2017, interview was multifaceted, but probably centered around the actions of Strzok’s boss, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
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