'S--- just got real': DOJ watchdog uncovers pro-Trump text messages between FBI agents after 2016 election

Reuters

  • The Justice Department's watchdog said it uncovered a series of text messages between two FBI agents cheerleading President Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election.

  • "Trump!" one FBI agent said on November 9, 2016. "Hahaha. S--- just got real," another replied. "Yes it did," the first agent said.

  • The second agent responded: "I saw a lot of scared MFers on ... [my way to work] this morning. Start looking for new jobs fellas. Haha."

  • The texts were revealed in the inspector general Michael Horowitz's highly anticipated report on the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation. The report, published Monday, debunked many of Trump's conspiracy theories about anti-Trump bias among top brass at the FBI and the Justice Department.

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The Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, uncovered a series of text messages between two FBI agents expressing support for President Donald Trump right after the 2016 US election.

In his report, published Monday, on the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation, Horowitz detailed texts between a handling agent and a co-handling agent on November 9, 2016, rejoicing over Trump's victory the previous day.

"Trump!" the handling agent said.

"Hahaha. S--- just got real," the co-handling agent replied.

"Yes it did," the handling agent said.

The co-handling agent responded: "I saw a lot of scared MFers on ... [my way to work] this morning. Start looking for new jobs fellas. Haha."

Horowitz's report, which was highly anticipated by both Democrats and Republicans, debunked many of Trump's conspiracy theories about anti-Trump bias among top brass at the FBI and the Justice Department.

The report said:

  • The FBI had an "authorized purpose" to launch the Russia investigation.

  • The bureau's use of confidential informants complied with the rules.

  • There is no "documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the decisions to open the four individual investigations" into the Trump campaign aides George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, the former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and the former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

  • There were "significant inaccuracies and omissions" in applications for warrants to surveil Page, and FBI agents "failed to meet the basic obligation" to make sure the applications were "scrupulously accurate."

    • "We do not speculate whether the correction of any particular misstatement or omission, or some combination thereof, would have resulted in a different outcome," the report said. "Nevertheless, the department's decision makers and the court should have been given complete and accurate information so that they could meaningfully evaluate probable cause before authorizing the surveillance of a US person associated with a presidential campaign."

  • There is no "documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI's decision to seek FISA authority on Carter Page."

The Russia investigation, spearheaded first by FBI Director James Comey and later by the special counsel Robert Mueller, found that Trump's campaign enthusiastically welcomed Russian interference in the 2016 election but that there was not sufficient evidence to bring a conspiracy charge against anyone on the campaign.

It also found that there were over 10 instances in which Trump tried to obstruct justice in the investigation but that he was largely unsuccessful because his own staff refused to carry out his orders. Mueller declined to make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether to charge Trump, citing a 1973 Office of Legal Counsel memo that said a sitting president could not be indicted.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed Horowitz to launch an internal investigation into the origins of the Russia probe after Trump and his allies accused the FBI of acting improperly when it sought a warrant to surveil Page before and after the election. The president also alleged that the FBI "spied" on his campaign in what he dubbed "Spygate."

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