Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe was pressed Tuesday about the infamous “insurance policy” text that was made between former agent Peter Strzok and his lover, onetime bureau lawyer Lisa Page.
Numerous disclosures of the private text messages between Strzok and Page exposed what critics called an overt bias against then-candidate Donald Trump. A particular exchange from August 2016 fueled speculation that the Justice Department was trying to prevent the billionaire businessman from being elected when referring to an “insurance policy.”
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take the risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” Strzok texted Page.
McCabe called Strzok and Page’s texts “inappropriate” and “incredibly unfortunate” during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
“Did they surprise you?” Cooper asked.
“They did,” McCabe responded. “I didn’t know anything about Pete and Lisa’s private communications.”
Cooper then pressed the former deputy FBI director on the “insurance policy” text and pointed out how McCabe can “recall” several meetings but not the one that allegedly took place in his office.
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“You certainly recall an awful lot of meetings in this book, very specific instances over the course of your two decades,” Cooper told McCabe. “I mean, there are some people who are going to say, ‘It’s kind of convenient that you don’t recall that meeting that was referred to in this text.’”
“I met with the president of the United States three times over the course of a 21-year career,” McCabe replied. “I met with the investigative team handling these cases multiple times a day over the course of a year or certainly many months. So I don’t recall this specific conversation in which Peter made that reference. Peter has explained what he meant by that reference and I, of course, I’ll take him at his word.
“I think that the important thing to remember is that Pete Strzok and Lisa Page were two people who served this country well. They made some unfortunate and I think poor decisions in their personal lives, particularly with respect to these communications between the two of them, decisions that cast incredible doubt and speculation on the bureau, something that I’m sure neither of them ever intended to do,” McCabe continued. “The fact is that good people make poor decisions every day. It doesn’t completely erase the good service they gave to this country. Not one time in my working with them did I ever see anything that I perceived to be political bias or political influence in the decisions they were making and the work we were doing.”
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Cooper then followed by asking McCabe if discussions about stopping Trump from being elected were ever had with Strzok or Page.
“Nope, not ever,” McCabe declared.
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