Sloppy Paperwork?

For John, BLUF:  I am glad that Federal Judge Sullivan is on the case.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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TEXTS FOUND (& LOST) IN A BOTTLE

From PowerLine, by Mr Scott Johnson, 14 December 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General conducted an investigation of the gap in text messages during the period December 15, 2016, through May 17, 2017, from the cell phones assigned to famous FBI lovers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.  The Office of Inspector General Cyber Investigations Office was asked to attempt recovery of these missing text messages for the period in issue.  The Inspector General has just issued a report summarizing his investigation and stating his conclusion.

Even though it is short, the report is so dry as to be sleep inducing.  I take it that the OIG finds no wrongdoing.  To adapt a formulation from Cool Hand Luke, what we have here is failure to preserve communication.  Perhaps relevant policies need to be adjusted. Nearly 20,000 text messages have been recovered, but none from the tenure of Strzok and Page with the Special Counsel.

Here is the take of Pajama Media, 13 December 2018, by Ms Debra Heine, "OIG: Mueller's Office Scrubbed Strzok-Page Text Messages Before IG Could Review Them".

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) was unable to recover text messages from the iPhones of FBI lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page from their time on the special counsel team because the records officer scrubbed them, a new report from the DOJ watchdog reveals.

Regarding Strzok's iPhone, investigators were told that it "had been reset to factory settings and was reconfigured for the new user to whom the device was issued."

The special counsel’s records officer said that she had "determined it did not contain records that needed to be retained.”  She wrote in her records log, "No substantive texts, notes or reminders,” the report states.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff