Strzok testimony suggests Obama DOJ struck deal with Clinton to block FBI access to emails on private server

(File Photo: screenshot)

Newly released transcripts from former FBI agent Peter Strzok’s 2018 congressional testimony reveal that the Justice Department blocked the FBI’s access to Hillary Clinton’s private server.

The fired FBI agent told the House Judiciary Committee in June 2018 that the agency “did not have access” to Clinton Foundation emails on the server due to an agreement “negotiated between the Department of Justice attorneys and counsel for Clinton,” according to the Washington Examiner.

(File Photo: screenshot)

Then-majority general counsel Zachary Somers asked Strzok if “the Clinton Foundation was on the server” during last year’s closed-door testimony. Strzok responded that it was “on one of the servers, if not the others,” but noted that the FBI could not search for information that could help them in the 2016 email investigation during Clinton’s presidential campaign against then-candidate Donald Trump.

“Were you given access to those emails as part of the investigation?” Somers asked in 2018, according to the transcript.

“We were not. We did not have access,” Strzok replied.

“According to the [DOJ] attorneys, we lacked probable cause to get a search warrant for those servers and projected that either it would take a very long time and/or it would be impossible to get to the point where we could obtain probable cause to get a warrant,” he testified about the “Midyear Exam,” the FBI’s investigation into whether Clinton mishandled classified information through use of a private server to send and receive emails while she was secretary of state under former President Obama.

The FBI “obtained possession of the servers over time,” Strzok testified, noting that the FBI “had it voluntarily in the context — in the case of the servers, voluntarily in the context of consent that was worked out between DOJ attorneys and counsel for Secretary Clinton.”

That access was only granted after the DOJ negotiated with Clinton’s lawyers and still did not provide unfettered access as there was “a significant filter team that was put in place to work through the various terms of the various consent agreements,” according to Strzok, who testified that restrictions were in place even as the FBI searched Clinton’s emails.

“Those could be — and this is not an exclusive list — limits of domains, of date ranges, of people. But that’s not an exclusive list,” he said, insisting that the agency was “aggressive” in its investigation.

“The FBI team was certainly, I think, comparatively aggressive, which is my experience,” he said. “Agents tend to be much more aggressive in trying to get information. Prosecutors look at it from a different set of perspectives.”

“You know, we wanted — as an investigator, I want as much information as I can get,” he added. “I don’t want limitations. I don’t want you to tell me a date range is off limits, a domain is off limits, anything is.”

Despite the fact that classified information was found in 110 emails in 52 email chains when they were sent or received by Clinton, fired FBI Director James Comey would not recommend any charges against Clinton in 2016.

The Strozk testimony is the third transcript released by Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins this week following that of Justice Department official Bruce Ohr and former FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, who was engaged in an affair with Strzok and exchanged anti-Trump text messages with the former agent who was fired on Aug. 13, 2018.

Page’s testimony revealed that the FBI “was ordered by the Obama DOJ not to consider charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in the handling of classified information.”

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