‘7th Floor Involved’: Peter Strzok Kept Flynn Case Open for FBI Brass

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Peter Strzok kept the investigation of incoming National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.) open because the “7th floor” — senior leadership — wanted it so.

A set of text messages released this week as part of a batch of potentially exculpatory documents from the FBI shows Strzok telling a colleague not to close the investigation into Flynn for alleged violation of the Logan Act of 1799 — a law preventing private citizens from conducting diplomacy, which is rarely enforced. The FBI had drafted a memorandum on Jan. 4, 2017 to close the investigation — but Strzok texted a colleague to keep it open.

When asked why — “What’s up?” — Strzok replied tersely: “7th floor involved.” Strzok’s colleague replied: “I heard that might be the case yesterday.”

The next day, Jan. 5, then-FBI Director James Comey met with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and other officials in the Oval Office to discuss the investigation into Russia, and Comey’s plans to brief President-elect Trump about the salacious contents of the (false) “Steele dosser.”

Comey did so the next day, Jan. 6., at Trump Tower in Manhattan. The dossier was subsequently leaked to the media and first published by Buzzfeed on Jan. 10. Later, Special Counsel Robert Mueller led an investigation into alleged “Russia collusion.” Strzok, who led early investigations of Trump, was dismissed from Mueller’s team after his anti-Trump political bias was discovered in text messages with his lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page.

Attorney General William Barr said in December it was “simply not true,” as Comey claimed, that FBI leaders were not involved, and that inquiries into Trump were run by “a very small group of very high-level officials.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, is available for pre-order. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.