OIG Page 436

FBI decided to remove Hussein’s name from Comey letter

June 30, 2016: On June 30, 2016, Strzok sent the following text message to Page: “…Just left Bill…. He changed President to ‘another senior government official.’” Based on context, Strzok told us “Bill” referred to Priestap. Strzok stated:

My recollection is that the early Comey speech drafts included references to emails that Secretary Clinton had with President Obama and I think there was some conversation about, well do we want to be that specific? Is there some, out of deference to executive communications, do we want to do that? And I remember that discussion occurring. I remember the decision was made to take it out. I know I was not the person who did it.

Strzok told us that he saw no indication that this decision was done “to curry favor

or to influence anything.” Page told us that she could not remember the discussion

referenced in this text message. We also discuss this change to Comey’s July 5 statement in Chapter Six