Leading Republicans are demanding the appointment of a second special counsel to look into the FBI’s botched investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal use of an unsecured, unauthorized, private e-mail server and account during her tenure as secretary of state. At issue is a new revelation that the FBI “failed to preserve” five months of text messages between two FBI officials who appear to have conspired to protect Clinton and harm President Trump.

Clinton sent and/or received at least 2,079 e-mails containing classified information over her private server and account, and ousted FBI Director James Comey — who twice recommended against indictment — has been accused of protecting her. As more evidence comes to light, it is becoming apparent that Comey was not alone in protecting Clinton.

The five months of messages the FBI “failed to preserve” cover a crucial period between the presidential transition and the beginning of the Mueller probe.

While those five months of messages are currently unavailable, another 50,000 text messages between the two FBI officials — FBI Agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page — contain some pretty damning stuff, including reference to “an insurance policy” to remove Trump from office if he were elected and a mention of a “secret society” of highly placed people within the FBI and Department of Justice who were working against Trump. The “secret society” text was sent the day after Trump’s election, so it demonstrates a conspiracy against the man who was the president-elect, now the president.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) — who serves as chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — sent a letter, dated Sunday, January 21, to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding an explanation of the missing text messages and asking the FBI to provide all communications between Strzok and Page, and whether those communications were exchanged on their personal devices or by e-mail.

Johnson’s letter to Wray offers a new revelation: Text messages between Strzok and Page mention the “pressure” they faced to wrap up the Clinton investigation. That pressure began once it was apparent that Trump would secure the GOP nomination and face Clinton in the general election. This, of course, seems to confirm what many — including The New American — have reported: the FBI protected Clinton from anything resembling a real investigation.

The incestuous relationship between the Clinton “investigation” and the Mueller probe is evident in the fact that both Strzok and Page were involved in both of those cases.

On the same day that Johnson sent his letter to Wray, both Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Senator Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) took to social media demanding the appointment of a second special counsel.

On Sunday, Jordan tweeted:

First the IRS destroyed emails pivotal to our investigation of their political targeting.

Now the FBI "failed to preserve" texts between Peter Strzok & Lisa Page following the '16 election.

The time for a second special counsel is now. https://t.co/BonrBlsJsB

And Meadows, who serves as chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, tweeted:

Unreal. We've been asking for the remaining text messages between anti-Trump FBI agents (and former Mueller team members), Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The FBI now says the texts are "missing."

If it wasn't already clear we need a second special counsel, it's abundantly clear now https://t.co/nvpNY4s4QV

Representative Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) — who previously joined both Jordan and Meadows in demanding that the four-page memo of FISA abuses (which appear to be related to the Mueller probe) be made public — also joined them in this. In a statement, Zeldin said, “Congress must do everything it can to recover these critical text messages, including subpoenaing Strzok and Page’s cell carriers and requesting the FBI perform a full forensic exam of their employees’ phones in an attempt to recover the messages.”

Those subpoenas may already be in the offing. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said that his office intends to “use every technology available” to recover the missing text messages. “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,” he wrote.

With the possibility of subpoenas for mobile carriers’ records for those missing text messages and demands for a second special counsel added to demands for the four-page House memo to be made public and top GOP lawmakers urging the Department of Justice to investigate the author of the Trump “dossier,” one is left to wonder how much weight the Trump/Russia collusion probe can bear. Considering that in the past year of the investigation, it has produced exactly zero evidence of collusion, its collapse will likely be mourned only by its architects.

Of course, even if a second special counsel is appointed, there is no guarantee that he or she won’t be made of the same stuff as Mueller. Even still, the evidence of Deep State corruption is becoming so apparent that it can hardly be denied.

Photo of Hillary Clinton: AP Images