Given the scandalous earlier texts between the two released by the OIG, this claim is so arrogant that it would be laughable, but for the profound implications of a rogue law enforcement operation covering its tracks, secure in its belief that it will never be prosecuted thanks to Deep State operatives throughout the FBI and DoJ.

Robert Mueller's Special Counsel's Office (SCO) destroyed a potential treasure trove of evidence about the "insurance policy" Trump-haters Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were implementing against the Trump administration as it prepared to take office and establish itself in its first few months. Whatever the purported lovebirds texted each other and others during the tumultuous period, the SCO thought it was not worth scrutiny by outsiders not on the team.

We learn of this destruction of evidence only now thanks to the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General, headed by Michael Horowitz, who issued a report on its investigation of the "gap" in the text messages of the two from 12/15/16 to 5/17/17.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated this investigation upon being notified of a gap in text message data collection during the period December 15, 2016, through May 17, 2017, from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) mobile devices assigned to FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page relevant to a matter being investigated by the OIG's Oversight and Review Division. Specifically, the OIG's Cyber Investigations Office (CYB ER) was asked to attempt recovery of these missing text messages for the referenced period from FBI issued mobile devices issued to Strzok and Page.

But when the OIG went looking for the phones, there were two different sets of smart phones in use by Strzok and Page, apparently. The SCO issued iPhones to them, in addition to Samsung Galaxy phones that the FBI had utilized. Those SCO-issued iPhones, like dead men, will tell no tales (emphasis added):

The OIG was told that the DOJ issued iPhone previously assigned to Strzok had been re-issued to another FBI agent following Strzok's departure from the SCO. The SCO obtained the iPhone from that individual and provided it to the OIG. CYB ER obtained a forensic extraction of the iPhone previously assigned to Strzok; however. [T]his iPhone had been reset to factory settings and was reconfigured for the new user to whom the device was issued. It did not contain data related to Strzok's use of the device. SCO's Records Officer told the OIG that as part of the office's records retention procedure, the officer reviewed Strzok's DOJ issued iPhone after he returned it to the SCO and determined it contained no substantive text messages.

But relax: according to the SCO, none of Strzok's text messages would be of any interest, so we should just chill out. We are supposed to trust the merry band of Clinton donors, because we can rely on the integrity of people like Andrew Weissman.

Page's smartphone was treated even more cavalierly:

The SCO was unable to locate the iPhone previously assigned to Page, which had been returned to DOJ's Justice Management Division (JMD). Subsequently, in early September 2018, JMD informed the OIG that it had located the iPhone that had been assigned to Page. The OIG took custody of the device. Page's iPhone had been reset to factory settings on July 31, 2017, but had not been reissued to a new user. (The Office of the Deputy Attorney General told the OJG that the Department routinely resets mobile devices to factory settings when the device is returned from a user to enable that device to be issued to another user in the future.) The OJG forensic review of the phone determined that it did not contain any data related to Page's use of the device. SCO's Records Otlicer [sic] stated that she did not receive the phone following Page's departure from the $CO [sic] and therefore she did not review Page's iPhone for records that would possibly need to be retained prior to the phone having been reset.

But the FBI-issued Galaxy phones apparently left some digital footprints, so we have some of the evidence.

The OIG asked the FBI Inspection Division to locate the FBI issued Samsung Galaxy S5 devices formerly assigned to the subject employees and to obtain from the same individuals their assigned FBI issued Samsung Galaxy S7 devices. The FBI provided these four devices to the OIG in late January 2018. CYBER utilized digital forensic tools to obtain data extractions from the four FBI issued mobile devices. To ensure the thoroughness of text message recovery efforts, OIG also consulted with the Department of Defense, conducted additional quality assurance steps and hired a Subject Matter Expert. The result of these steps was the recovery of thousands of text messages within the period of the missing text messages, December 15, 2016 through May 17, 2017, as well as hundreds of other text messages outside the gap lime [sic] period that had not been produced by the FBI due to technical problems with its text message collection tool.

This is absolutely outrageous coming from team Mueller, so anxious to construe crimes related to the president, but blithely deep-sixing whatever data it wishes, telling the public to trust them.

Julie Kelly of American Greatness connects the timeline dots:

Think about it: Mueller was investigating Flynn for lying to the FBI. One of the agents who interviewed Flynn - Peter Strzok - was on the team. But after he was fired for biased texts on his FBI phone, someone scrubbed his SCO iPhone... a few weeks after the date on Flynn’s 302. https://t.co/WCb6fGw8fY — Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) December 13, 2018

Mueller's office is thumbing its nose at us. The MSM will bury this story. How about a special counsel to investigate the Mueller special counsel?

Image credit: Donkey Hotey