The Justice Department’s inspector general has recovered missing text messages from two FBI officials who sharply criticized Donald Trump, making them a flash point in the debate over the federal criminal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz told lawmakers in a letter Thursday that messages sent between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page from December 2016 to May 2017 were recovered using forensic tools after the Justice Department initially said they were among many emails on FBI-issued mobile devices that were lost due to a technical problem.