The missing text messages from a critical five-month period between Trump-bashing FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who both served on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, have been located by the Department of Justice.

In a letter sent to congressional committees, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office “succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices, including text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page that were sent or received between December 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017.”

Horowitz sent his letter confirming the discovery of texts to Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who had inquired about the messages.

“Our effort to recover any additional text messages is ongoing,” Horowitz added quoted by Fox News. “We will provide copies of the text messages that we recover from these devices to the Department so that the Department’s leadership can take any management action it deems appropriate.”



Peter Strzok and Lisa Page

This confirms a report from last night according to which the DOJ was in the process of recovering the five months worth of missing text messages between the two FBI employees. And, as asked last night, "here's a big question tonight: was the deputy FBI director, Andrew McCabe cell phone impacted by this so-called glitch? McCabe, he was Lisa Page's boss, and both she and Strzok talked about "the insurance policy in Andy's office," we believe that was McCabe."

As reported previously, more than 50,000 texts were exchanged between Strzok and Page, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed Monday, with some 5 months worth of communications reportedly "lost."

Two days ago the DOJ announced it had launched a probe into the missing texts.

“We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source,” AG Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “If we are successful, we will update the congressional committees immediately.”

In an amusing twist in which the FBI tried to blame the lost messages on Samsung, officials said that thousands of FBI cellphones were affected by the technical glitch that apparently prevented those Strzok and Page messages from being stored or uploaded into the bureau’s archive system.

The five-month stretch of missing messages covers a period of time that includes President Donald Trump's inauguration, the firings of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey and the standing-up of former FBI Director Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russian officials during the 2016 election.