Trump and Fox News Are Peddling Fake News About the ‘Bombshell’ FBI Text That Obama Wanted to ‘Know Everything’

GOP Senator Behind False FBI ‘Secret Society’ Claim Is Out With Another Lie

Remember the FBI “secret society” that Republican Senator Ron Johnson said was proof of corruption “at the highest levels” of the FBI? And then, days later, he was forced to walk the claim back after it was debunked, admitting he had no clue about it? How many Americans still believe there is a secret society within the FBI determined to take down President Trump?

“Nearly three out of four Republicans believe the FBI and Justice Department are trying to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday,” Reuters reported. 

But three in four Democrats said they believed a competing narrative that “members of the Republican Party and the White House are working to delegitimize the FBI and DOJ in the investigation of Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election.”

Now, even more damage is being done. In a new lie being pushed by Sen. Johnson again, FBI agent Lisa Page on Sept. 2, 2016, allegedly sent a text to Peter Strzok saying: “POTUS wants to know everything we’re doing.” Johnson says that is referring to the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

Here’s how Fox News is “reporting” this “story”:

Trump posted this tweet earlier Wednesday:

Only, it’s not about the Clinton investigation, and, as ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum points out, it is impossible that it would have been. 

Here’s why:

FBI Director James Comey closed the Clinton email investigation on July 5, 2016. It was not reopened until October. The same trove of text messages released Tuesday reveals that the FBI did not even become aware of additional emails on Anthony Weiner’s laptop until September 28, 2016.

So, just chronologically, Senator Johnson’s claim – which is being parroted by Fox News, Drudge, and a slew of far right wing media outlets – is false. 

“So what was Obama interested in?” Legum continues. “Most likely, he wanted information about the counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, which was active on September 2, 2016.”

Obama has publicly said that he confronted Putin about election interference a few days later at the Group of 20 meeting in China, telling the Russian leader to “cut it out.”

“[I]t has to be about the Russia probe,” former Department of Justice official Matthew Miller told ThinkProgress in reference to the September 2, 2016 texts.

Again, we have a Republican lawmaker making up “facts” and peddling them in attempt to discredit the FBI and DOJ in order to protect the president – all of which harms American democracy, which has been Putin’s plan all along.

Legum right now is on Twitter trying to get the right to take down the false stories.

In his ThinkProgress report Legum adds:

“Don’t hold your breath for Fox News to correct this false report. It will likely be presented to millions of viewers tonight on primetime television. But that does not make it true.”