New FBI Texts: Agents Bought Liability Insurance over Russia Investigation
New text messages released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Wednesday evening suggest that FBI agents involved in investigating Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign bought professional liability insurance for fear of being exposed and sued.
The text messages,
reported by The Federalist and
included in court filings by Sidney Powell, were part of a new batch of documents released as exculpatory evidence in the prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. The evidence was released after a review of the case by U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, ordered by Attorney General William Barr.
In one text, an agent speculated that they would be “screwed” when a new attorney general began asking questions about the investigation, possibly after leaks to the
New York Times or other media outlets.One text, dated Jan. 10, 2017, read: “we all went and purchased professional liability insurance.” Other texts discussed the rules for reimbursement of that insurance.
Powell also pointed to text messages that suggest FBI agents believed that some officials in the bureau were biased in favor of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election in arguing that the case against her client should be dismissed.
Other text messages suggest that FBI agents deliberately kept the case open despite finding no evidence against Flynn. In one exchange, agents appeared to comment on a briefing that in the Oval Office on January 5, 2017, with then-President Barack Obama, Vice President
Joe Biden, and several senior law enforcement and intelligence officials present.
One text reported that “people here are scrambling for info to support certain things and its a mad house.” Another suggested that “Trump was right,” a comment that may have referred to Trump’s Jan. 3, 2017, tweet saying the FBI was delaying a briefing on alleged Russian interference in the election because it needed more time to “build a case.”
New FBI Texts: Agents Bought Liability Insurance over Russia Investigation