FBI failed to warn Trump in a defensive briefing that Flynn and Papadopoulos were already under investigation
Fox News:
A mid-August 2016 counterintelligence briefing for the Trump campaign did not specifically warn officials about Russian outreach to the Trump team, nor did it warn that two campaign aides, Mike Flynn and George Papadopoulos, were already under FBI investigation, Fox News has learned.Strzok actually rehearsed the briefing with other FBI officials so they had to be aware he was not disclosing relevant information. The briefing took place at or near the time he was texting Page about an "insurance policy" in keeping Trump from winning the election.
The new details about the so-called “defensive briefing” have emerged from congressional letters, text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page, and sources familiar with the matter. Such briefings are designed to warn the candidate and his team about national security threats.
“There was a defensive briefing of candidate Trump on Aug. 17 of 2016,” Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said Thursday on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “And I can tell you what he wasn't told: He wasn't warned about a Russia investigation that Peter Strzok had opened 18 days earlier.”
Strzok, who was later removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team for sending anti-Trump texts, was a central coordinator for the FBI on the defensive briefing, which included multiple agencies. Three weeks earlier, Strzok opened an FBI counterintelligence investigation into campaign aide George Papadopoulos.
A source familiar with sensitive records documenting the August briefing told Fox News that Strzok was in a unique -- and apparently conflicted -- position. Strzok opened the FBI investigation into Russian outreach to Trump campaign aides, while at the same time he was supposed to be warning the Trump campaign about Russian activities.
Critics of the Russia and special counsel probes question whether the lengthy investigation could have been shorter, or whether it could have been avoided altogether, had Strzok and others provided adequate warning.
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