What Is FBI's 'Secret Society'? Conservative Media Abuzz With Conspiracy Theory

There’s growing contention between the conservatives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation over missing texts between FBI agent Peter Strzok and attorney Lisa Page that allegedly alludes to existence of a "secret society" within the FBI. President Donald Trump, the conservative media and Republicans are outraged over missing texts that they claim were deleted intentionally in a conspiracy to undermine the president.

As more texts came streaming in when the FBI released the texts to Congress, one particular message gained national and conservative attention — the one which refers to the secret society.

The texts gained immense notoriety not just for it’s unflattering opinion on Trump presidency but because of Strzok's involvement in the special counsel that was investigating possible Russian collusion of Trump's administration during the 2016 election. Though Special Counsel Robert Mueller took him out of the team when the texts surfaced, that didn't stop the conservatives from projecting the probe as a witch-hunt perpetrated by the FBI in a coup to overthrow president Trump.

How did the conspiracy theory based on the existence of the secret society begin?

Strzok and Page were caught in the crossfire between the FBI and the White House since a series of texts emerged in mid-December where they frequently discussed national politics. One of the texts spoke about an "insurance policy" against Trump during his presidential campaign.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” he told Page. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”

However, the cryptic text on "secret society" within the FBI is one of the texts that sparked conservatives' interest and gave rise to a conspiracy theory, with one conservative media outlet referring to it as the "largest political scandal since Watergate."

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who is also head of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, relentlessly pursued a mention about secret society in one of Page's messages. He claimed there were secret offsite FBI meetings that involved a number of high ranking officials. However he declined to identify the officials, NBC reported.

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy in an interview with Fox News said he had seen the texts released by the FBI to the Congress that said, "Perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society." Gowdy didn’t expound further on the text but questioned "what the secret society was all about," CNN reported.

Things spiralled out of control when the Department of Justice announced there were missing texts from December 2016 to May 2017. The conservatives called this a huge cover up. However, Sen. Ron Johnson said a technical glitch on FBI's side resulted in loss of those texts.

Some argued the texts merely stated that Strzok found the prospect of Trump’s presidency worrisome, however the conservatives argued the text depicted irreparable bias of FBI toward political parties.

The House Intelligence Committee that has compiled a report allegedly evidencing the existence of political bias by the FBI. The Department of justice asked the Committee for a chance to peruse the memo first and warned about the dangerous implications of making the report public to media houses.

"We believe it would be extraordinarily reckless for the Committee to disclose such information publicly without giving the Department and the FBI the opportunity to review the memorandum and to advise the [committee] of the risk of harm to national security and to ongoing investigations that could come from the public release," a top Justice Department official wrote in a letter Wednesday to House Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, ABC News reported.