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<\/p>\nTrump Attacks Samsung Over the 50K Missing FBI Texts Fueling the Latest GOP Conspiracy Theory<\/b>
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Donald Trump on Wednesday tweeted an attack on Samsung over the 50,000 missing FBI texts that some conservatives are certain must contain evidence that the intelligence agency is trying to undermine the Trump presidency.<\/p>\n
Tweeted Trump: \u201cWhere are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWhere are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!<\/p>\n
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
VOX has an excellent summation of the backstory on the FBI agents at the center of the missing emails story<\/a>:<\/p>\n
Strzok and Page have been in the crosshairs of the White House and its defenders since the mid-December release of texts in which they discussed an \u201cinsurance policy\u201d against Trump in the runup to the November election. Special counsel Robert Mueller removed Strzok from his team when he became aware of the texts, but that hasn\u2019t stopped some conservatives from alleging that they prove the Mueller probe is a partisan witch hunt\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026There is very little evidence to support this allegation, but it shows every sign of snowballing into a big deal. President Trump called the missing messages\u00a0\u201cone of the biggest stories in a long time\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in a Tuesday morning tweet;\u00a0Attorney General Jeff Sessions<\/a>\u00a0has said an investigation into how they disappeared is already underway.<\/p>\n
The \u201cmissing texts\u201d conspiracy has legs because for months, Republicans have been arguing that the FBI in general, and Mueller\u2019s probe specifically, is irreparably biased against Trump. Some Republicans, like Florida Rep. Francis Rooney, have called for a\u00a0\u201dpurge\u201d<\/a>\u00a0of purportedly disloyal bureau personnel.<\/p>\n
This rhetoric points to the real scandal here: Republicans are trying to impose a partisan, Trump-loyalist litmus test on America\u2019s top law enforcement agency. Moreover, they\u2019re working to derail a probe into the growing evidence that Russia meddled in an American election on a massive scale.<\/p>\n
More at VOX<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Trump tweeted about it earlier this week as well:<\/p>\n
\nIn one of the biggest stories in a long time, the FBI now says it is missing five months worth of lovers Strzok-Page texts, perhaps 50,000, and all in prime time. Wow!<\/p>\n
\u2014 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2018<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
VOX adds:<\/p>\n
The official explanation from the Justice Department is that there was a problem with Strzok and Page\u2019s bureau-issued Samsung Galaxies \u2014 that\u00a0\u201cfirmware upgrades\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and other technical issues deleted records of texts sent from many phones across the bureau. But Trump and his allies didn\u2019t buy it and have waged a furious campaign in the media to declare the missing texts as proof of an FBI conspiracy.<\/p>\n
There is no evidence to support such a wild claim. Whether there actually was a software glitch is easily verifiable; according to a\u00a0Monday statement<\/a>\u00a0from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Inspector General\u2019s office is already investigating the issue.<\/p>\n
The post Trump Attacks Samsung Over the 50K Missing FBI Texts Fueling the Latest GOP Conspiracy Theory<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n