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Lankford: Anti-Trump Texts Don't Undermine Entire Mueller Probe

Lankford's office

Senator James Lankford said text messages critical of President Trump exchanged by former members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team don’t wholly undermine that Russia investigation.

"Obviously, I don't think it taints the entire process, but it certainly taints that season of it and it's something you should look at with any political investigation he was on at the time," Lankford said. "Again, we want our FBI agents to be neutral and be nonpolitical, not very actively engaged politically."

Lankford told “Face the Nation” FBI agent Peter Strzok’s work on Mueller’s Russia investigation should be reviewed to ensure he wasn’t influencing its direction. The justice department recently released the texts after the indictment of several former Trump advisers and aides.

"When that was discovered by the Mueller team, they fired him — appropriately so — and took him off of that team, but that is a big consideration," Lankford said. "We expect the justice department to be blind and be fair to all sides, not have a clear political bias and express it so strongly."

Lankford, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, added Russia is not done meddling in U.S. affairs. Lankford said even now, Russian trolls are using social media to amplify controversial stories and stir divisions among Americans.

"If you've got two kids in a playground that are in a fight, there's always somebody on the edge of the playground screaming, 'Fight! Fight! Fight!' trying to bring a bigger crowd to it," Lankford said. "That's what the Russians are really trying to do. They're not starting it; they're just trying to add fuel to the flame."

The Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting its own investigation of Russian election interference.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.