December

13

2017

U.S.

Departmentof

Justice

Office

of

theInspectorGeneral

The

Honorable

Ron

Johnson

Chairman

Committee

on

HomelandSecurity

and

Governmental

 ffairs

340

Dirksen

Senate

Office

Building

United

StatesSenate

Washington

DC

20510

The

Honorable

Charles

E.

Grassley

Chairman

Committee

onthe

Judiciary

224Dirksen

Senate

Office

Building

United

StatesSenate

Washington

DC

20515

Dear

Chairmen

Johnsonand

Grassley:

Thank

you

for

yourletter

of

December

6

2017 requesting

information

regarding

the

Officeof

the

Inspector

General s

discovery

of

certain

electronic

text

messages

in

connection

with

its

reviewof

the

actions

of

theDepartment

of

Justice

and

the

Federal

Bureau

of

Investigation

 FBI

inadvance

of

the

2015presidential

election.

Our

responses

to

thequestionspresented

in

your

letter

areset

forth

below

1.

When

and

howdid

OIG

become

aware

of

the

text

messages

between

PeterStrzok

and

Lisa

Page?

In

gathering

evidence

for

the

OIG s

ongoing

2016

election

review we

requested

consistent

with

standard

practice

that

the

FBI

produce

text

messages

from

the

FBI-issued

phones

of

certain

FBI

employees

involved

in

the

Clinton

e-

mail

investigation

based

on

searchterms

weprovided.After

finding

a

number

ofpolitically-oriented

text

messages

between

Page

and

Strzok

the

OIG

sought

from

the

FBIall

textmessages

betweenStrzok

and

Pagefrom

their

FBI-issued

phones

through

November

30 2016 which

covered

the

entire

period

of

the

Clintone-mail

server

investigation.

The

FBI

producedthese

text

messages

on

July

20

2017.

Following

our

reviewof

thosetextmessages

the

OIG

expanded

our

request

to

the

FBIto

include

all

textmessages

betweenStrzok

and

Pagefrom

 

November30,2016,

through

the

dateof

thedocument

request,whichwas

July

28,2017.TheOIGreceived

these

additional

messages

on

August

10,2017.

2.

When

and

how

did

OIGnotify

the

Special

CounselRobert

Muellerof

the

textmessages?

On

July

27,2017,

upon

our

identificationof

many

of

the

politicaltextmessages,

the

InspectorGeneral

met

with

the

DeputyAttorneyGeneral

and

the

SpecialCounseltoinformthemofthetexts

that

we

had

discovered,

and

provided

them

withasignificant

number

of

the

texts,so

that

they

could

take

any

managementactionthey

deemedappropriate.

3.DidOIG

refer

these

allegations

to

the

U.S.Officeof

Special

Counsel

to

pursue

a

potential

Hatch

Act

inquiiy?

If

not

whynot?

The

Hatch

Act,

and

itsassociated

regulations

identify

authorized

and

prohibitedpoliticalactivitiesformostexecutivedepartmentemployees,including

FBIemployees.TheHatchActpermitsexpressionsofpersonalopinions

about

candidates

and

issues.Incontrast

politicalactivity,

which

is

defined

as

 activity

directed

toward

thesuccessor

failure

of

a

political

party

candidate

for

partisan

politicaloffice,or

partisan

politicalgroup isprohibitedin

certain

contexts.We

arecognizantofthese

issues

and

willdeterminewhetherthereisabasistorefertheallegations,alongwithrelevantevidencewehavegathered,regardingPage s

and

Strzok s

text

messages

to

the

OfficeofSpecialCounsel

upon

completionof

our

r vi w

4.

Inconnectionwith

the

OIG sreview

ofthe

actions

of

DOJ

and

the

FBIinadvanceof

the

2016

presidentialelection,

has

the

OIGreceived

any

similar

allegationsinvolving

other

government

officials?

TheOIG sreviewisongoing,

and

we

currently

are

in

the

processof

completing

our

witnessinterviews

and

documentreview.Thereafter,weintend

toissueapublicreportwith

our

findingsonthese

and

theotherissues

weare

reviewing,

and

wewouldbepleasedtodiscussthemwithyou

at

that

time.Thankyouforyourcontinued

support

fortheworkofmyOffice.Ifyou