Ranking House Judiciary Committee member Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) claims there are “several indications” that disgraced former anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok leaked sensitive information to the press.
The Daily Caller is reporting that Collins sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Thursday asking about the former FBI deputy assistant director (DAD) who was investigated for “unauthorized contacts with the press.”
Collins referenced a summary report released by Horowitz’s office last week titled Findings of Misconduct by an FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Unauthorized Contacts with the Media, Disclosing Law Enforcement and Other Sensitive Information to the Media, and Accepting a Gift from the Media (Summary). The report stemmed from Horowitz’s 2018 review of FBI misconduct.
In his letter, Collins writes:
The OIG investigation concluded that the DAD [Deputy Assistant Director] engaged in misconduct when the DAD: (1) disclosed to the media the existence of information that had been filed under seal in federal court, in violation of 18 USC §401, Contempt of Court; (2) provided without authorization FBI law enforcement sensitive information to reporters on multiple occasions; and (3) had dozens of official contacts with the media without authorization, in violation of FBI policy.
The Summary later states “Prosecution of the DAD was declined.”
Collins then goes on to suggest that Strzok was the DAD referenced in the investigation summary, pointing to Horowitz’s 2018 FBI report:
While the DAD is not named in the Summary, there are several indications the DAD in question is former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok. For example, the 2018 Report noted, “Peter Strzok is an experienced counterintelligence agent who was promoted to Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) of the Espionage Section in September 2016.” The 2018 Report also said, “[m]ost troubling, on October 29, 2016, Strzok forwarded from his FBI account to his personal email account an email about the proposed search warrant the Midyear team was seeking on the Weiner laptop. This email included a draft of the search warrant affidavit, which contained information from the Weiner investigation that appears to have been under seal at the time in the Southern District of New York . . .”
Collins then asks the following questions of Horowitz:
- Is Peter Strzok the DAD referenced in the report?
- Was this case referred to the Department of Justice for prosecution?
- Did the Department decline to prosecute? If so, why?
- Was the appropriate federal court notified an FBI agent disclosed to the media existence of information that had been filed under seal? If not, why not? If so, what, if any, action was taken by the Court?
