Texts from agent kicked off Mueller team found

Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election, departs Capitol Hill following a closed door meeting in Washington in June 2017. (AP File Photo/Andrew Harnik )

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department’s internal watchdog says his office has found missing text messages from an FBI agent removed last summer from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz says in a letter to Congress that his office “succeeded in using forensic tools” to recover messages exchanged between December 2016 and May 2017.

The department last month began providing lawmakers with copies of text communications to and from the counterintelligence agent who was reassigned from Mueller’s team following the discovery of anti-Donald Trump messages he traded with an FBI lawyer.

The president has fumed about the missing messages and has said they represent “one of the biggest stories in a long time.”

Horowitz says his office’s efforts to recover additional messages are continuing.

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