Senior FBI official Peter Strzok says he didn't arrange a cocktail party with a federal judge who serves on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, despite telling his mistress in a text message that he would.

Strzok suggested a "cocktail party" with U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in a July 25, 2016, message to FBI attorney Lisa Page. Days later, on July 31, Strzok opened the FBI's probe of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

Strzok told the Justice Department inspector general's office that his messages regarding the judge dealt with no particular case and that the social gathering didn't happen, according to a report released Thursday on the FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Contreras mysteriously recused himself from former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's case in December after he accepted Flynn's guilty plea in regard to lying to the FBI, warning him to cooperate for a lighter sentence.

Strzok was removed last year from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe after the discovery of messages he sent to Page denouncing Trump. His link to Contreras was first reported in March, after lawmakers obtained messages referencing the possible "cocktail party."

"Rudy is on the FISC! Did you know that?” Page texted Strzok.

"We talked about it before and after. I need to get together with him," Strzok responded, discussing "being circumspect in talking to him in terms of not placing him into a situation where he’d have to recuse himself.”

"[H]e's super thoughtful and rigorous about ethics and conflicts. M suggested a social setting with others would probably be better than a one on one meeting. I'm sorry, I'm just going to have to invite you to that cocktail party," Strzok wrote to Page.

In additional messages, Strzok said he spoke with Contreras before the judge took a seat on the FISC on May 19, 2016. "[T]hey needed people and they especially needed minorities, and then he said he'd gotten on a month or two ago at a graduation party we were both at," Strzok wrote.

Although Strzok texted Page that he had seen the judge at a recent graduation party, Strzok told the inspector general's office "it had been a while since he had seen" Contreras.

"All of this discussion is a consideration of doing the right, appropriate, ethical thing. It is the polar opposite of what is being suggested by some," Strzok told the inspector general's office.

"At no time did I ever with Judge Contreras think of or in actuality reach out for the purpose of discussing any case or trying to get any decision, provide any information, or otherwise influence him with regard to any investigative matter," Strzok said.

It's unclear if the inspector general's office interviewed the judge, who offered no public rationale for his recusal from the Flynn case.

Because FISC surveillance orders are classified by default, it's unclear what role if any Contreras had in issuing or signing renewals of FISC orders authorizing surveillance of former Trump campaign officials, including adviser Carter Page and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Strzok opened the FBI's Russia probe after Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat that Russians had Clinton's emails.

