House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte issued a subpoena on June 22 to the former senior FBI official who vowed to “stop” President Donald Trump from being elected.
“The Committees have repeatedly requested to interview Mr. Strzok regarding his role in certain decisions, but he has yet to appear,” the release states.
Since October last year, the House Judiciary and Oversight committees have been investigating decisions made by the Justice Department in 2016, including the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation and the bureau’s counterintelligence probe of the Trump presidential campaign.
On June 19, the committee heard testimony from Justice Department Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz. The IG released a nearly 600-page report this month covering the findings of his 17-month investigation of how the FBI handled the Clinton email probe.
Strzok figures prominently in the report, since he was the lead agent in the Clinton case. The inspector general found that text messages sent by Strzok and four other FBI officials “cast a cloud” over the investigation.
The messages revealed intense bias against Trump and in favor of Clinton by Strzok and others during the 2016 election. Horowitz did not find evidence to show that any investigative or prosecutorial decisions were made based on bias.
One of Strzok’s decisions is the only exception to the report’s conclusion, the IG noted. Investigators are not entirely sure if Strzok’s choice to prioritize the Trump probe over a new discovery in the Clinton case was free of bias.
Horowitz also emphasized that Strzok’s messages betrayed a “biased state of mind” and “a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on June 21 that Strzok no longer has security clearance. Strzok was escorted out of FBI headquarters on June 15, one day after the release of the IG report.
