DOJ admits that it 'inadvertently' altered FBI lover Peter Strozk's notes with an erroneous date before they were made public in Mike Flynn case
The Department of Justice has admitted that it 'inadvertently' added erroneous dates to notes written by former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok, which were later made public in the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
One note memorializes a January 5, 2017 meeting at the White House that Strozk attended with then President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey, and others.
In a court filing on Wednesday, the DOJ said that the FBI had added a Post-it note to that page with the incorrect estimated dates of January 4-5, as well as another on a separate page of Strzok notes.
'Those two sticky notes were inadvertently not removed when the notes were scanned by FBI Headquarters, before they were forwarded to [DOJ's Washington DC Criminal Division] for production,' DOJ prosecutors said in the court filing.
The Department of Justice has admitted that it 'inadvertently' added erroneous dates to notes written by former FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok (above)
The DOJ said Wednesday that the date highlighted above was inadvertently added to Strozk's notes. The notes describe a January 5, 2017 meeting at the White House
The unaltered notes (above) describe the meeting between Susan Rice ("NSA"), Sally Yates ("DAG"), Biden ("VP"), Obama ("P") and Comey ("D")
One line reads 'VP: "Logan Act"' but offers no further explanation or context for the note
The notes regarding the White House meeting made headlines because they indicate that Biden suggested investigating Flynn for a potential violation of the Logan Act - an obscure 1799 law prohibiting private interference in U.S. foreign policy, which has never been used in a successful prosecution.
'VP: "Logan Act"' state Strozk's notes, without further explanation or clarification.
The subject of the White House meeting was Flynn's December 2016 conversation with Russia's U.S. ambassador, in which the incoming National Security Advisor urged the Kremlin not to retaliate against the Obama administration's fresh sanctions.
The notes indicate that Obama said the FBI needed to 'have the right people on it' and asked 'is there anything I shouldn't be telling the transition team?'
Strzok's notes even played a role in last week's presidential debate, when President Donald Trump appeared to cite them as evidence that Biden had pushed for a Logan Act prosecution against Flynn.
'You gave the idea for the Logan Act against General Flynn,' Trump said. 'You better take a look at that, because we caught you in a sense, and President Obama was sitting in the office.'
In sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Comey, who was present at the January 5, 2017 White House meeting, denied that Obama or Biden ever suggested prosecuting Flynn under the Logan Act.
'I would remember it because it would be highly inappropriate,' Comey said. 'It did not happen.'
'You gave the idea for the Logan Act against General Flynn,' Trump told Biden at the debate last week. 'You better take a look at that, because we caught you in a sense, and President Obama was sitting in the office'
In sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Comey, who was present at the January 5, 2017 White House meeting, denied that Obama or Biden ever suggested prosecuting Flynn under the Logan Act
The erroneous dates on Strozk's notes provoked outrage from his attorney Aitan Goelman, who last month demanded that DOJ explain why the documents had been altered.
Strzok's attorney also argued documents brought forth by Flynn's team violate a court order.
Flynn's attorneys Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall filed the Strozk documents on September 24, claiming that they were evidence of 'outrageous, deliberate misconduct by FBI and and DOJ—playing games with the life of a national hero'.
Strzok, who was fired from the FBI in 2018, was one of the investigators who questioned Flynn about his discussions with Russian officials in 2017 and believed he lied about them.
The agent drew notoriety for anti-Trump text messages he sent during an extramarital affair with FBI attorney Lisa Page while employed by the bureau.
Strzok was removed from then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team once those messages were discovered.
A report from Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said Strzok's messages were inappropriate and 'cast a cloud over the FBI's handling' of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's private email server.
Flynn's (above) attorneys filed the Strozk documents on September 24, claiming that they were evidence of 'outrageous, deliberate misconduct by FBI and and DOJ—playing games with the life of a national hero'
Another page of Strzok's notes had a note added by FBI investigators (highlighted above)
The Flynn prosecution was a signature criminal case in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
Flynn was the only person charged in the Mueller investigation who had served in the White House and he agreed months into the investigation to cooperate with the authorities in hopes of receiving a lighter sentence.
He was questioned by the FBI at the White House, just days after Trump's inauguration, about his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador to the U.S. pertaining to sanctions that had just been imposed by the Obama administration for election interference.
The conversation alarmed law enforcement and intelligence officials who were already investigating whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia to sway the presidential election in Trump's favor.
They were puzzled by the White House's public insistence that Flynn and the diplomat had not discussed sanctions.
But the Justice Department argued in May that the FBI had insufficient basis to interrogate Flynn about that conversation, which Attorney General William Barr has described as fully appropriate for an incoming national security adviser to have had.
In August, a federal appeals court in Washington declined to dismiss the prosecution of Flynn, permitting a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department's request to dismiss its case against Trump's former national security adviser.
The decision has kept the case - at least temporarily - alive and rebuffed efforts by both Flynn's lawyers and the Justice Department to force the prosecution to be dropped without further inquiry from the judge, who has for months declined to dismiss it.
