OPINION:
The one question that comes to mind after reading the texts that former special counsel investigator Peter Strzok sent to colleague Lisa Page in the 2015-2016 time frame is this: How the heck did he ever make it to Robert Mueller’s so-called nonpartisan, unbiased team of merry Russian collusion investigators?
This is not a guy who kept his politics to himself. This is not a guy who, by all texting intent, seemed to have any inclination to do anything but use his investigative position to bury President Donald Trump.
Look at these eye-openers, as noted by CBS.
In August 2015, Page texted Strzok, “I just saw my first Bernie Sander[s] bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car.”
Strzok wrote back: “He’s an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out.”
In March of 2016, Strzok then wondered if Trump would “be a worse president than [Ted] Cruz?”
He also wrote that Trump was “awful,” and “an idiot” — and this was at a time when it was clear the then-businessman had emerged as the clear Republican front-runner in the race to the White House.
In July of 2016, Strzok mocked the GOP convention guests, as “PATHETIC!”
And he wrote of Trump: “HE appears to have no ability to experience reverence which I [is] the foundation for any capacity to admire or serve anything bigger than self to want to learn about anything beyond self, to want to know and deeply honor the people around you.”
And finally, on Election Day, Strzok spoke of a Trump win as “f—ing terrifying.”
This is the guy who was sent packing from Mueller’s investigative team in August — for sending text messages that tipped his anti-Trump political hand.
It’s not that Mueller knew of the texts at the time he was assembling his team to investigate possible collusion between Russian and Team Trump during election season.
It’s that the majority of Mueller’s investigative teammates are known Democratic supporters — known donors to key Democrats like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. And a good investigative leader might have a red flag raised at that bit of partisan information.
A good investigative team leader, a reputable special counsel, who truly wanted to have an unbiased, balanced, by-the-book and completely just and fair investigation might not wanted to have brought on board such a heavy tilt toward one political aisle over another in the first place.
Why not?
Because it’s not rocket science that such hefty partisanship might lead to a Strzok-type mentality that taints any findings going forward.
Mueller could have anticipated that and taken precautions — precautions like hiring an equal number of Republicans, say, as Democrats. That’s what a good investigative team leader would have done, anyway — unless, of course, the whole investigation is simply a witch hunt aimed at bringing about a desired, planned and plotted outcome.
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