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Report of Investigation: Recovery of Text Messages From Certain FBI Mobile Devices

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oig.justice.gov/reports/2018/i…

The Department ofJustice (DOJ) Office ofthe Inspector General (OIG) initiated this investigation upon being notified of a gap in text message data collection during the period December 15, 2016, through May 17, 2017,

from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) mobile devices assigned to FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page relevant to a matter being investigated by the OIG's Oversight and Review Division.

Specifically, the OIG's Cyber Investigations Office (CYBER) was asked to attempt recovery of these missing text messages for the referenced period from FBI issued mobile devices issued to Strzok and Page.

The OIG asked the FBI Inspection Division to locate the FBI issued Samsung Galaxy S5 devices formerly assigned to the subject employees and to obtain from the same individuals their assigned FBI issued Samsung Galaxy S7 devices.

The FBI provided these four devices to the OIG in late January 2018. CYBER utilized digital forensic tools to obtain data extractions from the four FBI issued mobile devices.

To ensure the thoroughness of text message recovery efforts, OIG also consulted with the Department of Defense, conducted additional quality assurance steps and hired a Subject Matter Expert.

The result ofthese steps was the recovery of thousands of text messages within the period of the missing text messages, December 15, 2016 through May 17, 2017,

as well as hundreds ofother text messages outside the gap lime period that had not been produced by the FBI due to technical problems with its text message collection tool.

In view ofthe content of many ofthe text messages between Strzok and Page, the OIG also asked the Special Counsel's Office (SCO) to provide to the OIG the DOJ issued iPhones that had been assigned to Strzok and Page during their respective assignments to the SCO.

Strok and Page had each returned their issued iPhones six months earlier when their assignments to the SCO had ended. The 010 was told that the DOJ issued iPhone previously assigned to Strzok had been re-issued to another FBI agent following Strzok's departure from the SCO.

The SCO obtained the iPhone from that individual and provided it to the 010. CYBER obtained a forensic extraction of the iPhone previously assigned to Strzok;

however. this iPhone had been reset to factory settings and was reconfigured for the new user to whom the device was issued. It did not contain data related to Strzok's use of the device. SCO's Records Officer told the 010 that as part of the office's records retention procedure,

the officer reviewed Strzok's DOJ issued iPhone after he returned it to the SCO and determined it contained no substantive text messages.