A veteran investigator in the Robert Mueller-led probe into possible ties between President Donald Trump‘s campaign and Russia is accused of sending disparaging text messages regarding Trump to another FBI official with whom he was having an affair.

One of the texts, revealed on February 7, from Lisa Page to FBI agent Peter Strzok discussed “preparing talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama, who wanted ‘to know everything we’re doing,'” according to Fox News. “…the message more likely indicated that Obama wanted to be kept informed of an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election,” CNN reported, not the Clinton email probe.

Page is now speaking out to the first time to Daily Beast. “It’s almost impossible to describe” what it’s like, to have the president criticize her, she said. “It’s like being punched in the gut. My heart drops to my stomach when I realize he has tweeted about me again. The president of the United States is calling me names to the entire world. He’s demeaning me and my career. It’s sickening.”

On July 12, 2018, he was questioned by members of Congress and heatedly denied that his texted opinions about Trump influenced the investigations into the president and Hillary Clinton.

Oversight of FBI and DOJ: Testimony by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter StrzokJoint Hearing on, “Oversight of FBI and DOJ Actions Surrounding the 2016 Election: Testimony by FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok” Learn more: http://judiciary.house.gov Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/housejudiciary Twitter: https://twitter.com/HouseJudiciary 2018-07-13T02:04:51.000Z

The attorney general wanted to know why five months of Strzok’s texts to fellow FBI official Page were supposedly not preserved. However, the Department of Justice now says missing texts have been recovered.

The New York Times and The Washington Post both reported December 2 that Strzok, a senior counterintelligence investigator at the F.B.I., was removed from the probe because several disparaging text messages indicated he wasn’t a fan of Trump and was possibly a Hillary Clinton supporter.

The news comes a few months after his unexpected removal from the probe was announced in August. Strzok engaged in the text conversations with Page, with whom he reportedly had an affair, The Post reported. In addition, Strzok was one of the officials who interviewed Hillary Clinton in the investigation into her private email server, which led to no charges being filed.

The stakes could get even higher. “A Republican on the House Judiciary Committee said …he’s gotten a commitment from Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) to subpoena top officials at the FBI and Justice Department in their ongoing inquiry into claims of bias against President Donald Trump,” reported Politico, listing Strzok, Page, and FBI officials Andrew McCabe and Bruce Ohr, along with Ohr’s wife, Nellie, as subpoena targets.

It was revealed in January 2018 that the FBI “failed to preserve” months of texts between Strzok and Page, according to The Daily Caller. “The disclosure was made Friday in a letter sent by the Justice Department to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC),” reported The Daily Caller, which said five months worth of communications were not saved. That revelation prompted President Donald Trump to call out the pair on Twitter:

In one of the biggest stories in a long time, the FBI now says it is missing five months worth of lovers Strzok-Page texts, perhaps 50,000, and all in prime time. Wow! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2018

The DOJ then said it’s found the missing texts.

Here’s what you need to know about Strzok and Page:

1. Strzok Reportedly Had an Affair With an F.B.I. Lawyer, to Whom He Often Texted Anti-Trump & Pro-Clinton Messages & the Attorney General Wants to Know Why Texts Weren’t Saved

While details surrounding his departure from the investigation hadn’t been revealed for months, The Post reported December 2 that Strzok was taken off the investigation for engaging in multiple text conversations that were deemed disparaging to Trump and supportive of Clinton.

It was also revealed that Strzok was having an affair with F.B.I. lawyer Lisa Page that was deemed “problematic.” But the text conversations that Strzok and Page exchanged during the Clinton investigation and 2016 presidential campaign were deemed far worse, The Post, citing multiple officials familiar with the matter, reported.

Specifically, Strzok called then presidential candidate Donald Trump an “idiot” and “awful” and wrote that Hillary Clinton “should win 100,000,000 – 0” in text messages to Page, among other incendiary comments.

Numerous news outlets obtained the electronic communications on December 12 after the Justice Department turned them over to Congress.

“God Hillary should win 100,000,000 – 0,” Strzok wrote to Page, according to one message obtained by Politico. “Also did you hear [Trump] make a comment about the size of his d*ck earlier? This man can not be president,” Page responded, Politico reported.

Politico also obtained the messages, and reported that one exchange unfolded this way:

“I just saw my first Bernie Sanders bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car,” Page wrote in August 2015.

“He’s an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out,” Strzok replied.

Politico recounted another exchange this way from March 2016:

Page: “God trump is a loathsome human….omg he’s an idiot.”

“He’s awful,” Strzok replied.

When then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s wife lost a state Senate seat, Strzok called Virginians who voted against her “ignorant hillbillys,” Fox reported.

You can read more of the specifics of the texts here.

According to Fox News, more texts were revealed in January 2018. “Page warned Strzok that Clinton ‘might be our next president,’ in a Feb. 25, 2016 message, continuing, “The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear. You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more [DOJ] than [FBI]?”

According to Fox News, new text messages released in January 2018 “allegedly reveal that controversial FBI official Peter Strzok was hesitant about joining Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation team because of his ‘gut sense’ there would be no big there there.’” U.S. Senator Ron Johnson released the new texts on the Jay Weber radio show in Wisconsin. Fox News reported that some of the context is unclear but one Strzok message allegedly read: “you and I both know the odds are nothing. If I thought it was likely, I’d be there no question. I hesitate in part because of my gut sense and concern there’s no big there there.”

As for the possible subpoenas, that news came from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who made the revelation in an appearance on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” according to Politico. Bruce Ohr, an associate attorney general with the U.S. Department of Justice, who might also be subpoenaed, was demoted in December 2017 because of contacts he allegedly had with the controversial Fusion GPS firm that hired the former British spy who developed the infamous “Trump dossier” on Russia. His wife, Nellie Ohr, has now become part of the controversy after it was revealed that she worked for Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the dossier with financial help from Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC.

Now it’s been revealed that even more of the texts – five months worth in particular – were not saved.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed on January 22, 2018 that the pair exchanged 50,000 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,” Sessions told Fox News. “If we are successful, we will update the congressional committees immediately.” Fox noted that the missing texts “span a crucial window, between the presidential transition and the launch of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe — where both officials previously were assigned” and run from December 14 to May 17, 2017.

House Judiciary Committee members allege that the pair also spoke about a supposed “secret society” in the FBI.

2. Strzok Was Removed From the Investigation in August & Page Was Removed 1 Month Later

In August, ABC News reported that Strzok was removed from the investigation. The news came one week after agents executed a search warrant on the Virginia home of Trump’s now-indicted former campaign manager Paul Manafort.

The reason he was taken off the probe was unknown at the time, as he was well-respected in the industry as a law enforcement officer working counterintelligence cases. He was deemed to be one of the top investigators in the probe. ABC News reported that Strzok was taken off the Russia investigation and was sent to work in the F.B.I.’s human resource office, deemed a demotion within the agency.

A little over one month after Strzok’s departure, ABC News reported that F.B.I. lawyer Lisa Page also left the special Russia investigation. Page was known by various reports as being deeply experienced in “money laundering and organized crime cases,” and was part of what Wired magazine referred to as his “investigator’s dream team.”

While the departure of the two officials was well reported, they weren’t ever linked until now. A spokesman for Mueller’s office told The Post that Strzok was removed from his position “immediately upon learning of the allegations.” He added that Page left the investigative team two weeks prior to learning of the allegations.

3. Strzok Took Part in the Clinton Email Investigation & Reportedly Altered the Language of the Findings

Strzok helped oversee the F.B.I.’s investigation into the use of a private email server by Clinton when she was secretary of state under President Barack Obama. She was accused of using her family’s private email server for her official communications, including over 100 emails which contained classified information. Strzok was one of multiple agents who interviewed Clinton in the probe during her testimony, which lasted well over three hours. Heavily-redacted court documents also show that Strzok took part in interviewing multiple others as part of the probe, and served as the No. 2 official in the probe into the email server.

Hillary Clinton testifies on emails, her partnership with Defense Dept.Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fields questions from House lawmakers on the 2012 Benghazi attack that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. 2015-10-22T20:35:53.000Z

The Department of Justice and Director James Comey eventually ruled that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling her email communications, but recommended that no charges be filed. CNN reported that it was Strzok who edited the description of Clinton’s actions in Comey’s official statement. An unnamed source told the news outlet that Strzok changed the phrase “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless” in the statement. Someone who mishandles classified information can be prosecuted under federal law if they were “grossly negligent” in doing so.

“Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information,” Comey said in his statement on the results of the investigation.

Upon receiving documents from the F.B.I. in November, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned why the change was made, but the person responsible was never named.

Because of his previous ties to the Clinton investigation, some were taken by surprise when it was announced July 13 that Strzok was joining the team of over 25 people, including FBI employees and support staff, in Mueller’s exclusive probe.

Special counsel spokesman Peter Carr declined to comment on much of the announcement, other than saying Strzok oversaw “the beginnings of the Russia probe last summer,” CNN reported.

The team of investigators moved into offices in southwest Washington D.C., near the Department of Justice headquarters.

Officials from the F.B.I. said they were further reviewing communications between Strzok and Page to see if there was any political bias in their work.

The Department of Justice’s inspector general’s office said in a statement to The Post that investigators were “reviewing allegations involving communications between certain individuals, and will report its findings regarding those allegations promptly upon completion of the review of them.”

Neither Strzok nor Page responded to the news outlets for comment. If evidence of a political bias is found in their work, it could result in a public report being filed.

Some on social media, including ex-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, have called for the text conversations between Strzok and Page to be released as a matter of public record.

The texts should be released. Are there others? Is Mueller’s team truly neutral and fair? The American people need to see the texts. https://t.co/6zF2MMeSFS — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) December 2, 2017

Trump also commented on Strzok and the incident in the Mueller-led investigation via Twitter.

Report: “ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENT LED CLINTON EMAIL PROBE” Now it all starts to make sense! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

Tainted (no, very dishonest?) FBI “agent’s role in Clinton probe under review.” Led Clinton Email probe. @foxandfriends Clinton money going to wife of another FBI agent in charge. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017

BREAKING: top FBI investigator for Mueller–PETER STRZOK–busted sending political text messages bashing Trump & praising Hillary during the 2016 campaign. STRZOK actually LED the Hillary email probe & recommended clearing her; then was tapped to SUPERVISE the Trump Russia probe! — Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) December 2, 2017

4. Strzok Graduated From Georgetown University & His Wife Works at the SEC

An obituary shows that Strzok is married to Melissa Hodgman, who was named the associate director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in October 2016, a news release said. Hodgman started working in the enforcement division at the SEC in 2008 as a staff attorney and was promoted to assistant director in 2012. She investigated numerous cases of fraud and earned a $229,968 salary in 2016, FederalPay.org reported.

“I am honored by this appointment and look forward to continuing our tradition of pursuing tough but fair enforcement actions in complex and cutting-edge cases, especially matters involving cross-border issues and efforts to hold gatekeepers accountable for breaches of their professional standards,” Hodgman said in the news release.

Both Hodgman and Strzok graduated from Georgetown University, a list of donors to the university showed. Strzok earned his master’s degree from the school in 2013, the list indicated. In 2012, the couple donated between $2,500-4,999 to their alma mater.

Hodgman and Strzok also donated between $250-499 to the Shakespeare Theatre Company, a 2007-08 annual report said. The couple live in the Fairfax, Virginia area and purchased a home for $520,000 in June 2003, according to public real estate records.

5. Strzok Was Named in a Lawsuit Against the F.B.I. For Its Use of Polygraphs When Interviewing Applicants

There isn’t much information publicly available regarding Strzok, other than he worked for years as an intelligence research specialist for some time before joining the F.B.I., where he’s worked since at least the late 1990s.

In a 2000 lawsuit filed by multiple plaintiffs against the F.B.I. in regard to polygraph tests, Strzok was named as being part of the interview process. It stated that one of the plaintiffs, Eric Croddy, worked as a researcher in the private sector and was applying for a job at the agency. He was subsequently interviewed by a special agent, Kathy Muller and various others. He also took a written examination and a polygraph, which he accused Muller of calling a “line in the sand,” saying he was being deceptive.

One of the other officials Croddy interviewed with was Strzok, the lawsuit said. It noted that Strzok, at the time, was part of an F.B.I. unit that specifically dealt with “chemical and biological terrorism incidents.”