Special counsel Robert Mueller removed one of the agents from the Russia probe "immediately" after learning of the texts in late July. | Getty In texts, FBI agents on Russia probe called Trump an 'idiot' Messages could fuel GOP claims that bias tainted Clinton and Trump investigations. 
 
 Two FBI agents assigned to the investigation into alleged collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia exchanged text messages referring to the future president as an "idiot," according to copies of messages turned over to Congress Tuesday night by the Justice Department. 
 
 Special Counsel Robert Mueller removed one of the agents, Peter Strzok, from the Russia probe "immediately" after learning of the texts in late July, the department said in a letter to lawmakers. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The other agent, Lisa Page, had already ended her assignment to Mueller's office. 
 
 Copies of the messages obtained by POLITICO show the pair reacting to various developments as the presidential race unfolded and that their reaction to Trump was negative from early on. 
 
 “I just saw my first Bernie Sanders bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car," Page wrote in an August 2015 exchange. 
 
 “He’s an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out,” Strzok replied. 
 
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 The messages, which were turned up during a Justice Department inspector general investigation into potential political influence on investigative decisions during the campaign, are fueling Republican calls for a second special counsel to investigate Mueller's operation. 
 
 About 375 texts were handed over by the Justice Department, arriving on Capitol Hill the night before Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to face a prolonged grilling in front of the House Judiciary Committee. 
 
 The exchanges show Page and Strzok mocking Trump as early as mid-2015. 
 
 Responding to a Washington Post story about Trump saying it hadn’t been proven that Russian President Vladimir Putin had killed anyone, Page wrote: "What an utter idiot." 
 
 In a March 2016 message, Page exclaimed: "God trump is a loathsome human....omg he's an idiot." 
 
 "He's awful," replied Strzok. 
 
 The agents sometimes expressed respect or outright support for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. 
 
 "God Hillary should win 100,000,000 - 0," Strzok wrote in March 2016, calling himself a "conservative Dem." 
 
 "Also did you hear [Trump] make a comment about the size of his d*ck earlier? This man can not be president," Page said later in the exchange. 
 
 The last of the messages are from last December, so it's unclear how helpful they will be to Trump allies seeking to prove that Mueller's probe was tainted by bias. 
 
 But there are hints in the messages about the concern over Russian influence on the campaign, which was building in the final months of the election contest. 
 
 In July 2016, Page expressed concern that the “sandernistas” might undercut Clinton’s campaign. 
 
 “I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about the anarchist Assanges who will take fed information and disclose it to disrupt,” Strzok replied, referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who published emails hacked from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta 
 
 The following month, after exchanging more disparaging messages about Trump’s response to Gold Star father Khizr Khan, Page appears to suggest to Strzok that he needs to save the country from Trump. 
 
 “Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace,” Page wrote. 
 
 “I can protect our country at many levels,” Strzok replied. 
 
 One message suggests that the pair and perhaps other more senior FBI officials were assessing Trump’s chances while at work. 
 
 “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok wrote to Page in August 2016. 
 
 It’s unclear who Andy is, but other messages suggest he may be FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. He recused himself from Clinton email-related issues one week before the presidential election, but Republican critics have said he should have done so sooner because of his wife’s campaign for the Virginia state senate was supported by Clinton allies. 
 
 Page also suggests Trump was making racial appeals when he warned about voter fraud a few weeks before the November election. 
 
 “Full of dog whistles,” she wrote. “The racism is barely even veiled anymore.” 
 
 Shortly after the election, Page suggested Trump might be brought down by scandal. 
 
 “Bought all the president’s men,” she wrote. “Figure I needed to brush up on watergate.” 
 
 The texts show that after the election Strzok and Page also seemed aghast at the possibility that then-Sen. Jeff Sessions might be nominated as attorney general. 
 
 "Sessions for DoD or AG," Page wrote on Nov. 15, about a week after the election. 
 
 "Which is the f-ed uppedness of it ... Sessions for AG," Strzok wrote back. 
 
 "Good god," Page replied. 
 
 The pair also took shots at other politicians, with Strzok calling former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley a “douche.” 
 
 Page speculated on Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s sexuality, saying he was “long suspected of being gay.” 
 
 The agents also don’t seem to have been fans of Attorney General Eric Holder. 
 
 “Oh God, Holder! Turn it off turn it off turn it off!!!!” Strzok wrote when Holder appeared at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016. 
 
 “Yeah, I saw him yesterday and booed at the TV,” Page replied. 
 
 At a House hearing last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he'd seen the texts, but he declined to characterize them or comment on them, saying he wanted to await the outcome of the inspector general's review. 
 
 Press accounts have said Strzok and Page were having an extra-marital affair at the time they exchanged the messages, some of which seem to refer to other family members. Some of the messages were partially redacted in the copies sent to Congress. Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said in a letter to lawmakers that the deletions were made to "protect the privacy interests of third parties and sensitive law enforcement information, and remove irrelevant information." ||||| The Justice Department provided Congress with more than 350 text messages exchanged between FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. Mr. Strzrok led the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. He was having an affair with Ms. Page, and they exchanged the messages over their work phones. 
 
 Here is a selection of those texts: 
 
 Aug. 16, 2015 
 
 Lisa Page: Finally, and related to nothing, but I just saw my first Bernie Sanders bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car. 
 
 Peter Strzok: He’s an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out. 
 
 Jan. 18, 2016 
 
 Strzok: Martin O’Malley is a freakshow. 
 
 March 4, 2016 
 
 Strzok: “Would he be a worse president than cruz?” 
 
 Page: “Trump? Yes I think so.” 
 
 Strzok: “I’m not sure.” 
 
 Strzok: “OMG he’s an idiot.” 
 
 March 4, 2016 
 
 Page: Poor Kasich. He’s the only sensible man up there 
 
 Strzok: He was pretty much calling for death of Snowden. I’m a single issue voter. ;) 
 
 April 2, 2016 
 
 Page: So look, you say we text on that phone when we talk about hillary because it can’t be traced, you were just venting bc you feel bad that you’re gone so much but it can’t be helped right now. 
 
 June 22, 2016 
 
 Page: Hi. Just leaving a meeting now. How we make law in this country is offensive and irresponsible. 
 
 Strzok: I know it is. its why i LOATHE congress. Can’t wait to hear the story 
 
 July 19, 2016 
 
 Strzok: Are you kidding me? Duck Dynasty now Scott Baio? Ridiculous. 
 
 Page: Wait, is that who is speaking at the convention?! 
 
 Strzok: Yes!!!!! 
 
 Page: Charles in Charge?! That’s the best they can do?! Lmfao 
 
 Strzok: It’s PATHETIC! 
 
 July 20, 2016 
 
 Page: Mitch McConnell always reminds me of a turtle. 
 
 Aug. 15, 2016 
 
 Strzok: I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office -- that there’s no way he gets elected -- but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40... 
 
 Sept. 27, 2016 
 
 Page: Man, I should have started drinking earlier. I’m genuinely stressed about the debate. 
 
 Oct. 14, 2016 
 
 Page: The Roger Stone comments are scary as sh*t 
 
 Strzok: Roger Stone is horrible. 
 
 Oct. 20, 2016 
 
 Strzok: I am riled up. Trump is a fucking idiot, is unable to provide a coherent answer. 
 
 Strzok: I CAN’T PULL AWAY. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO OUR COUNTRY [REDACTED]??!?! 
 
 Nov. 9, 2016 
 
 Strzok: Just woke up. We fought on and off all night. 
 
 Strzok: Too hard to explain here. Election related. Which is also godawful bad. 
 
 Nov. 15, 2016 
 
 Page: My god, Sessions for DoD or AG 
 
 Strzok: Which is the f-ed uppedness of it 
 
 Nov. 18, 2016 
 
 Strzok: Sessions for AG 
 
 Page: Good god 
 
 Dec. 1, 2016 
 
 Strozk: I keep thinking about what the D said, what was it, sick to one’s stomach? Want to talk with you about it more.... 
 
 Page: Mildly nauseous, he said. 
 
 (Note: In later Congressional testimony, in May 2017, FBI Director James Comey testified he was “mildly nauseous” at the thought his actions in the Hillary Clinton email investigation may have tilted the election.) 
 
 Corrections & Amplifications 
 
 Text messages sent on Nov. 9, Nov. 15 and Nov. 18 were incorrectly dated as Oct. 9, Oct. 15 and Oct. 18 in an earlier version of this article. 
 
 Write to Del Quentin Wilber at del.wilber@wsj.com ||||| Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerrold Nadler and two other panel Democrats asked for a full review of DOJ’s decision making that led to Tuesday night’s release of about 375 texts that the FBI agents sent during the 2016 presidential campaign. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Democrats want to know why Justice Department released FBI texts 
 
 Democrats pressed the Justice Department on Thursday to explain why it released salacious, anti-Donald Trump text messages exchanged between two FBI employees who are still under investigation for their work on the Russia special counsel investigation. 
 
 Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerrold Nadler of New York and two other panel Democrats asked for a full review of DOJ’s decision making that led to Tuesday night’s release of about 375 texts that the FBI officials — Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — sent over a 15-month period during the 2016 presidential campaign. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The Democratic lawmakers called Justice’s decision an “unusual move” after the texts were given to Congress and a select group of reporters earlier this week. 
 
 Strzok was removed from Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation team in late July when DOJ officials learned about the text messages as part of a broader inspector general examination into alleged misconduct by then-FBI Director James Comey and others during the 2016 campaign. Page ended her assignment to Mueller’s office earlier this summer. 
 
 The messages, sent while the two FBI officials were reportedly having an extramarital affair, refer to Trump as an “idiot”, express support for Democrat Hillary Clinton and disparage several other political leaders, including Bernie Sanders and Attorney General Eric Holder. 
 
 DOJ’s decision to release the text messages this week before the public IG report is finished — Inspector General Michael Horowitz has said he may be done by April — is now the subject of controversy. 
 
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 Democrats had pressed Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein about the department’s release protocol for the messages during a Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Wednesday. There, Rosenstein explained DOJ decided to make the text messages public after getting requests for them from Congress. 
 
 He said DOJ press officials had also consulted with the IG’s office and obtained permission. 
 
 “Generally speaking, our goal is to be as forthcoming with the media as we can, when it is lawful and appropriate to do so,” Rosenstein said during the hearing. “So I would not approve anybody disclosing something that was not appropriate to disclose.” 
 
 In their letter Thursday, the Democrats asked DOJ Public Affairs Director Sarah Isgur Flores to name the DOJ officials who evaluated the content of the text messages to ensure they could be released. They also requested the names of who at DOJ gave the green light to share the messages with the media at the same time they were being delivered to Congress. Nadler, joined by Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, also asked for a list of which reporters and media outlets attended the Tuesday night briefing and any documents they were shown. 
 
 Separately, the Democrats asked Horowitz “for further clarification” on whether DOJ did, indeed, consult with the IG’s office prior to sharing the text messages with Congress and the media. 
 
 In a statement Thursday sent to POLITICO in response to the House Democrats’ latest letter, Isgur Flores said DOJ had provided key Judiciary Committee members with the texts in their offices Tuesday night before Justice’s Public Affairs division shared the same messages with the media. 
 
 “As we understand now, some members of the media had already received copies of the texts before that — but those disclosures were not authorized by the department,” she added. 
 
 DOJ had been planning to include the text messages as part of the final IG report, Isgur Flores added, but then changed course and opted for the early release after getting congressional committee requests for the material. 
 
 She said Rosenstein consulted with the IG, who “determined that he had no objection to the department’s providing the material to the congressional committees that had requested it.” 
 
 DOJ also turned to senior career ethics advisers who “determined that there were no legal or ethical concerns, including under the Privacy Act, that prohibited the release of the information to the public either by members of Congress or by the department.” 
 
 Justice’s IG office declined to comment. 
 
 The DOJ decision to release the text messages to the media and lawmakers before the IG report has drawn criticism from outside the department. Samuel Buell, a former assistant U.S. attorney and Duke University law school professor, called the move “very odd and unprofessional.” 
 
 Benjamin Wittes, the editor-in-chief of the blog Lawfare , wrote Thursday that the Strzok-Page issue should be “adjudicated within the confines of a serious, internal investigation, not a partisan circus.” 
 
 “Rosenstein here has, at a minimum, contributed to that circus — at the expense of his own employees,” Wittes added. “In throwing a career FBI agent and career FBI lawyer to the wolves by authorizing the release to the public of their private text messages — without any finding that they had done anything wrong — he once again sent a message to his workforce that he is not the sort of man with whom you want to share your foxhole. The DOJ and FBI workforces will not forget that. Nor should they.” 
 
 The text messages themselves have also sparked partisan debate, with Republicans seizing on them as evidence of “extreme bias” in both Mueller’s Russia probe and last year’s FBI investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while running the State Department, where Strzok served as the lead FBI agent. 
 
 "Department of Justice investigations must not be tainted by individuals imposing their own political prejudices,” the panel’s chairman, Rep. Robert Goodlatte of Virginia, said during Wednesday’s hearing. 
 
 Democrats countered that the messages were private exchanges protected under the First Amendment. "Peter Strzok did not say anything about Donald Trump that the majority of Americans were not also thinking at the same time," Nadler said. ||||| FILE - In this July 7, 2016, file photo, FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Oversight Committee about Hillary Clinton's email investigation, at the Capitol in Washington. Text messages... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 7, 2016, file photo, FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Oversight Committee about Hillary Clinton's email investigation, at the Capitol in Washington. Text messages between two FBI officials that have been reviewed by The Associated Press show they spoke admiringly... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this July 7, 2016, file photo, FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Oversight Committee about Hillary Clinton's email investigation, at the Capitol in Washington. Text messages between two FBI officials that have been reviewed by The Associated Press show they spoke admiringly... (Associated Press) FILE - In this July 7, 2016, file photo, FBI Director James Comey testifies before the House Oversight Committee about Hillary Clinton's email investigation, at the Capitol in Washington. Text messages... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The day in July 2016 that FBI Director James Comey defended to Congress the bureau's decision in the Hillary Clinton email probe, two FBI officials traded admiring texts about his verbal dexterity — and mocking jibes at the lawmakers questioning him. 
 
 Congress, wrote FBI lawyer Lisa Page in one text, is "utterly worthless." ''Less than worthless," replied Peter Strzok, a seasoned FBI counterintelligence agent assigned to that investigation. "Utterly contemptible." 
 
 The officials' assessment of Comey, facing hours of questions about his decision not to seek charges against Clinton for her use of a private email server, was unmistakably flattering. 
 
 "God he is SO good," Strzok said. "I know," Page responded. "Brilliant public speaker. And brilliant distillation of fact." 
 
 That exchange is included among 384 pages of text messages between Page and Strzok provided by the Justice Department to Congress and reviewed by The Associated Press. The texts, part of an inspector general investigation into the handling of the Clinton email probe, are most notable for derogatory messages about President Donald Trump — the discovery of which led to Strzok's reassignment from special counsel Robert Mueller's team. But they also include wide-ranging and unguarded discussion about a variety of current events and public figures, including Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and an encryption court fight with Apple, as well as candid assessments of their colleagues and their FBI careers and futures. 
 
 Among the thousands of texts, the dialogue about Comey is especially striking because it further calls into question White House characterizations of an FBI in "tatters," where "countless" agents complained about their director before his removal. Employee surveys released last year show FBI employees consistently gave Comey high marks. And emails published this week by the Lawfare blog show FBI field office leaders using words like "profound sadness" and "hard to understand" in spreading the news about Comey's May 9 termination, one of the events now under investigation by Mueller for possible obstruction of justice. 
 
 The texts proved an explosive development when revealed in December, giving rise to Republican allegations of bias in the FBI and the Justice Department and leading Trump to make an extraordinary allegation of "treason" against Strzok that the agent's lawyer dismissed as "beyond reckless." Strzok was removed from Mueller's group in July after Mueller learned of the texts. Page, who'd also been detailed to that team, left that assignment before the messages were discovered. 
 
 Since then, amid attacks on the bureau, Director Christopher Wray has defended the FBI as home to "tens and thousands of brave men and women." Attorney General Jeff Sessions, meanwhile, has been more muted in his support, saying criticism can be appropriate and that political bias "in either direction" must be eliminated. 
 
 There's no question both Strzok and Page were stridently opposed to Trump's candidacy and the prospect of a Trump administration, using words like "idiot," ''loathsome," ''menace" and "disaster" to describe him. In one text four days before the election, Page told Strzok that the "American presidential election, and thus, the state of the world, actually hangs in the balance." They frequently texted each other news stories about Russian election meddling, denigrated Trump associate Roger Stone and, in one profanity-laced message, Strzok cursed out the "cheating (expletive) Russians." 
 
 But the texts, which encompass a two-year period beginning around the start of the Clinton email investigation in 2015, cover far more ground than Trump. 
 
 They underscore how the Clinton inquiry, well before the launch of the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia, caused anxiety and tension within the FBI and Justice Department as witness interviews, strategic decisions and even public statements were picked apart internally and in the news media in the months preceding the election. 
 
 Strzok was distressed, for instance, that former President Bill Clinton had an impromptu meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch aboard her plane in the investigation's final stages. Lynch subsequently announced that she would accept the FBI's recommendations, setting the stage for Comey's announcement that the FBI would not seek charges. 
 
 "All the airport tarmac articles finally burst out. Took a little bit. Not a big deal, just ASTOUNDINGLY bad optic. And doesn't help what the D is trying to do," he texted in an apparent reference to the FBI director. 
 
 Weeks before that, Strzok confided to Page that Justice Department lawyers were concerned by the late discovery of classified marking notations along some paragraphs in State Department emails. 
 
 "No one noticed. And while minor, it cuts against, 'I never send or received anything marked classified," he wrote. "Because they're worried, holy cow, if the FBI missed this, what else was missed?" 
 
 He was also flummoxed at one point by what he said was the "worst news" — that a computer specialist had used wiping software to delete email messages, making it, he said, potentially "much harder" to recover what they needed. 
 
 The texts also make clear that FBI leadership knew weeks before Comey alerted Congress that a trove of emails relevant to the Clinton investigation had been found on a laptop belonging to former Rep. Anthony Weiner. It remains unclear why the FBI waited a month before revealing the discovery of new emails and before obtaining a warrant to scour them. On Sept. 28, 2016, one month before the news became public, Strzok told Page that he'd been summoned to the deputy director's office because "hundreds of thousands of emails" had been turned over by Weiner's attorney to prosecutors as part of a sexting investigation, with a "ton of material" believed to be from Weiner's wife. 
 
 "This," Strzok wrote, "will never end." 
 
 But for a time, it did seem to have ended. Comey closed out the case July 5, 2016, and two days later, faced hours of questioning from a House committee. The two officials watched, and though Strzok lamented that he was a "control freak" and that some answers were imprecise, they also texted admiringly of his performance — even his joked that he had to use the bathroom for the last half-hour. 
 
 "I did get a chuckle out of D's gotta pee joke...," Strzok said. 
 
 "Everyone did," Page replied. "That's why he's as good at this as he is."
– More than 300 text messages exchanged between two FBI agents who used to work for Robert Mueller's Russia probe were delivered to Congress this week, riling Republicans who didn't like how some of them had ripped into Donald Trump during the presidential campaign and shortly after he was elected. But per the Wall Street Journal, Trump wasn't the only target of the insults and snark lobbed between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who reportedly were having an affair during the period when the texts were exchanged, per Politico. Bernie Sanders was one notable who caught some flak. "I just saw my first Bernie Sanders bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car," Page wrote. Strzok replied: "He's an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out." Page also seemed worried in July 2016 that Bernie Sanders supporters, whom she called "sanderistas," would sabotage Hillary Clinton's chances. Others who were verbally flayed in the texts: Page on Mitch McConnell: He looks like "a turtle." Strzok, apparently on Hillary Clinton: "I'm worried about what happens if HRC is elected." (No elaboration on why.) Page on Jeff Sessions, after learning he'd become AG: "Good god." Page on Ohio Gov. John Kasich: "long suspected of being gay." Strzok on Chelsea Clinton: "Self-entitled." Strzok on former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley: "a freakshow" and "a douche." Strzok on Paul Ryan: "a jerky." Strzok on Democratic National Convention speech by former AG Eric Holder: "Oh God, Holder! Turn it off turn if off!!!" Meanwhile, a DOJ spokeswoman says that some members of the media received copies of the texts before they were supposed to, and Democratic lawmakers aren't happy about it, Politico reports. "Those disclosures were not authorized by the department," she said in a statement. Read more of the texts here.