A Republican senator is claiming that an FBI informant told Congress that a ‘secret society’ formed by agents of the bureau held off-site meetings after Donald Trump’s election.

Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, told Fox News Tuesday that the development is indicative of ‘corruption of the highest levels of the FBI’.

‘That secret society - we have an informant that's talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off-site,’ Johnson said.

‘There is so much smoke here.’

‘A secret society?’ Fox News host Bret Baier asked Johnson. ‘Secret meetings off-site of the Justice Department? And you have an informant saying that?’

‘Correct,’ Johnson said.

.@SenRonJohnson on alleged 'secret society' mentioned in @FBI agents' texts: "That 'secret society' - we have an informant that's talking about a group, they were holding secret meetings offsite." #SpecialReport https://t.co/0NPVFhqWiY pic.twitter.com/NaXelnfaJP — Fox News (@FoxNews) January 23, 2018

Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, is claiming on Tuesday that an FBI informant told Congress that a ‘secret society’ formed by agents of the bureau held off-site meetings after Donald Trump’s election

Peter Strzok, the deputy assistant director of counterintelligence, and fellow FBI agent Lisa Page were revealed to have spoken about a 'secret society' that was to be formed after Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the election

‘Is there anything more about that?’ Baier asked.

‘No. But we have to dig into it - this is not a distraction. Again, this is bias - potentially corruption - at the highest level of the FBI,’ Johnson said.

‘By the way, Robert Mueller used to run the FBI,’ he said.

‘He is in no position to do an investigation over this kind of misconduct.’

Johnson called for a second independent counsel to investigate the matter.

‘So I think at this point in time we probably should be looking at a special counsel to undertake this investigation - but Congress is going to have to continue to dig," he said.

In an appearance on 'The Story with Martha MacCallum,' Rep. Trey Gowdy said the two agents also discussed deleting their text message history. Five months of their conversations later went missing

‘When you see this kind of bias and corruption in the FBI you have to ask the question, are there similar individuals highly biased –‘ political operatives burrowed into the Department of Justice as well. Does Attorney General Sessions really have a department he can rely on and trust as well?’ he asked.

Two FBI officials who derided Trump in text messages prior to the presidential election and suggested taking out an 'insurance policy' in case he won were revealed on Monday to have talked about forming a 'secret society' the day after the Republican politician beat Hillary Clinton.

The conversation was part of a batch of communications between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page the Department of Justice provided last week to Congress, two members of Congress told Fox News.

In an appearance on 'The Story with Martha MacCallum,' Rep. Trey Gowdy said, 'The day after the election, what they really didn't want to have happen, there is a text exchange between these two FBI agents, these supposed to be objective, fact-centric FBI agents saying, "Perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society."

'So of course I'm going to want to know what secret society you are talking about, because you're supposed to be investigating objectively the person who just won the electoral college. So yeah - I'm going to want to know.'

President Donald Trump put the spotlight Tuesday back on the two FBI officials who disparaged him in text messages prior to the presidential election and whom he'd previously accused of 'treason,' this morning

Standing beside Gowdy in the joint interview was Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, who the first of the two Republican legislators to mention it.

'We learned today about information that after, in the immediate aftermath of his election, that there may have been a "secret society" of folks within the Department of Justice and the FBI, to include Page and Strzok, that would be working against him,' Ratcliffe said.

He added, 'I'm not saying that actually happened, but when folks speak in those terms, they need to come forward to explain the context with which they used those terms.'

The Justice Department turned over copies of the communications last week. But it revealed a critical gap in messages between Strzok, a counterintelligence agent who worked on Hillary Clinton's email case, and Page, an agent who worked with Strzok for a time on the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference, as it did.

Fifty thousand texts the pair sent each other between December 14, 2017 and May 17, 2017 are missing, the department said.

Strzok, the deputy assistant director of counterintelligence, told Page in texts that he had been asked to be part of Mueller's team but he wasn't sure he'd accept the invitation.

'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,' he told her in May 19 a message the FBI turned over to Congress.

Lawmakers also revealed on Monday a conversation in which Strzok and Page discussed deleting their text exchanges. Five months of messages later went missing.

New messages provided to Congress last Friday revealed their chatter immediately after the election about forming a 'secret society' and referred to 'Our task' with a capital O.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that Justice is taking all available actions to recover the missing messages.

Johnson, who's the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, read aloud the exchange about Mueller's investigation Tuesday on a radio show.

Copies of the exchange that came two days after Mueller was appointed were obtained by the Daily Caller.

Johnson told Milwaukee radio host Jay Weber on Tuesday that the message was 'jaw-dropping' considering their previous conversations about Trump.

Even 'the man who had a plan to do something because he just couldn't abide Donald Trump being president' had a sense there's no there there, he said.

'I think that's kind of jaw-dropping,' he said. 'And look at what this nation's been put through as a result.'

Without seeing the rest of text, it's just smoke, Johnson said, noting that legislators would need to see the rest of the texts to connect the dots.

'They are purposefully it seems like evading, putting some of these work-related messages on a platform that is untraceable,' he said.

'It looks like they're mishandling those federal records.'

He made similar comments on Brian Kilmeade's radio show.

'We have just been dragged through months of this special counsel and the FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counter-Intelligence Division is saying two days after Mueller has been appointed, his gut sense is there is no big there there… it really is pretty jaw dropping.'

Trump tweeted Tuesday night: 'Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!'

Wow! Earlier on Tuesday Trump also shared this tweet

President Trump demanded Tuesday night to know where the 50,000 text messages exchanged between two FBI staffers had gone.

Trump tweeted: 'Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!'

Attorney General Jeff Sessions had earlier ordered an investigation, the Justice Department said.

The FBI's system reportedly failed to store the messages because of a software upgrade glitch on many Samsung 5 cellphones.

The White House called them evidence of potential illegality at a briefing on Tuesday, and said the president believes it is of 'great cause for concern'. Trump earlier tweeted they were 'one of the biggest stories in a long time'.

Republicans have said the texts, which referred to Trump as an 'idiot' and a 'loathsome human,' raise concerns the FBI is biased against Trump and may have given Hillary Clinton, his Democratic presidential rival, favorable treatment after deciding not to recommend criminal charges in connection with the investigation of her use of a private email system while she was secretary of state.