Senate Homeland Security panel's chair hopes Strzok-Page texts will fuel leak probe

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Sen. Ron Johnson hopes release of Strzok-Page texts, emails will prod IG to investigate potential intel leaks

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, says Republican senators are asking the questions that special counsel Robert Mueller did not investigate.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson said Wednesday that internal text messages between two FBI employees should convince the intelligence community's inspector general to investigate potential leaks in the Trump collusion investigation.

In a letter to Inspector General Michael Atkinson, Johnson, R-Wisc., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the messages between Agent Peter Strzok and his lover, Lisa Page, "demonstrate the need to investigate leaks from agencies or entities other than FBI."

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Johnson said on "America's Newsroom" that he wants answers to questions that Special Counsel Robert Mueller "did not ask."

"Exactly what was the predicate for this entire investigation?" Johnson said to host Bill Hemmer. "There's so many unanswered questions. I think the American people have a right to know what was happening inside the Obama administration."

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In 2018, Strzok testified in an often-contentious hearing before the House on the content of text messages critical of President Trump.

Hemmer also asked Johnson about the House Judiciary Committee's vote on whether to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.

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Johnson said that the House of Representatives has become "highly politicized" and that with Democrats in charge, Americans will not see "good governance," but instead a quest for presidential impeachment.

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Moments before Johnson's interview, committee member Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the contention that the Mueller probe was a "witch hunt" -- as often described by Trump -- was "nonsense."

"Seventeen different intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered with our election, attacked our democracy for the sole purpose of artificially placing someone at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.," the Queens lawmaker said.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, countered that sentiment, calling the proceedings "all about trying to destroy Bill Barr because Democrats are nervous he’s going to get to the bottom of everything. He's going to find out how and why [Mueller's investigation] was started in the first place."