Newly released emails between FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page reveal that the bureau granted “special treatment” to Hillary Clinton’s lawyer in the lead-up to the 2016 election, according to government watchdog group, Judicial Watch.
Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a FOIA lawsuit and they reveal “how then-FBI General Counsel James Baker instructing FBI officials to expedite the release of FBI investigative material to Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall in August 2016. Kendall and the FBI’s top lawyer discussed specifically quickly obtaining the ‘302’ report of the FBI/DOJ interview of Mrs. Clinton.”
The documents also show the FBI failed to document at least four witness interviews in the Clinton email probe.
In an August 16, 2016 email, then-FBI General Counsel James Baker wrote in an email to colleagues–including Page–that he promised to process a document request from Kendall “expeditiously.”
I just spoke with David Kendall … I conveyed our view that in order to obtain the documents [FBI investigative material] they are seeking they need to submit a request pursuant to the Privacy Act and FOIA. I said they could submit a letter to me covering both statutes. They will send it in the morning. I said that we would process it expeditiously. David asked us to focus first on the Secretary’s 302 [FBI interview report]. I said OK. [Redacted] We will have to focus on this issue tomorrow and get the 302 out the door as soon as possible and then focus on the rest of the stuff.
The next day, Kendall emailed Baker a FOIA request on “behalf of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton” requesting “expeditious processing.”
Baker forwarded the request to colleagues, and wrote, “In my view, we need to move as quickly as possible on this, but pursuant to David’s oral request last night, we should focus first on Secretary Clinton’s 302…. Is the end of this week out of the question for her 302?”
Documents also reveal that four FBI 302 reports of interviews relating to the Clinton email probe were never written.
Page responded to a colleague from the general counsel’s office that four 302s “had never been written:”
[Redacted] to the best of my knowledge, yes they will when Pete identified for [redacted] the DOJ edits that needed to be made to the 302s [redacted] discovered that there were four (I think) 302s that had never been written. What I don’t know is whose 302s they are but unless Pete or Jon are able to respond in short order, I would throw them on the pile for redactions. Thanks so much.
For the full report, click HERE.
