FBI agent Peter Strzok met with House lawmakers behind closed doors Wednesday morning. He refused to answer any questions on the way into the room and could be seen ignoring Fox News’ Catherine Herridge as she trailed him down the hall with questions. But immediately after the meeting, there were reactions from both sides about what Strzok said.

Dems emerging from closed-door meeting say Peter Strzok insisted he was not political biased, did not prioritize Russia probe over Clinton inquiry and his text to “stop” Trump was just an “intimate conversation between intimate friends” — Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 27, 2018

Sheila Jackson Lee: “He prefaced or at least explained that he had no political bias … he did not elevate one investigation over the other” On the text about stopping Trump: it was an “Intimate conversation between intimate friends” — Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 27, 2018

So Strzok claims he did nothing wrong and Democrats immediately say ‘Welp, that’s good enough for us.” Meanwhile, Republican Rep. Mark Meadows saw things very differently:

Meadows disputes Strzok saying he was not biased. And he rejected the explanation that Strozk’s texts of wanting to “stop” Trump was just an “intimate exchange.” “If you have an intimate personal conversation between two people – that normally would show the intent …” — Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 27, 2018

It really is extraordinary that Strzok’s obvious bias against Trump (and for Hillary) has been completely excused as just a private matter. That’s despite the fact that Strzok was clearly discussing his professional responsibilities on several occasions.

Also, someone tried very hard to hide his text about stopping Trump, so much so that it took repeated efforts by the IG to recover the “we’ll stop him” text. Does the attempt to deep-six that particular text message show consciousness of guilt? If this was all just idle chatter among intimate friends, why hide it?

According to Rep. Meadows, there is more new information coming the public hasn’t seen yet.

“There is new information that was not included in the IG report,” Meadows said, but he would not say what it was — Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 27, 2018

As I mentioned yesterday, this isn’t nearly over for Strzok. He has already lost his security clearance while the Office of Professional Responsibility reviews his behavior and IG Horowitz is working on a second report detailing his behavior during the Trump investigation. From Politico:

While DOJ’s internal watchdog, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, has concluded that Strzok’s personal beliefs did not affect the major decisions in the Clinton probe, he is still investigating whether Strzok’s political views were walled off from his decision-making in the Russia probe. “I don’t know how any reasonable person reads the exits and concludes there’s no bias,” Meadows said Wednesday.

Finally, there is an alleged transcript of some of Strzok’s testimony already floating around Reddit and on Twitter. So far as I can tell, no one has verified it so I’m not including it here unless that changes. In any case, Republicans are still seeking to have Strzok return for open session testimony in the near future. For now, here’s Strzok entering the closed hearing: