FOX NEWS: Ratcliffe discusses FBI texts and implications with Clinton's indictment

Well, my next guest has seen some of the tens of thousands of texts exchanged by two FBI officials who sent anti-Trump messages during the 2016 campaign and beyond. He claims those texts include a reference to a, quote, secret society, and it could be something undermined, aimed at undermining the president. Joining us now, Texas Republican Congressman John Ratcliffe. Sir, great to have you with us tonight. Hi, Shannon. Good to be with you. All right. Thanks for having me on. We're happy to have you. Let me start by reading a little bit of what we heard from the attorney general today on this or late yesterday, he said, we will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not available to be produced. And we'll use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source. Are you confident you'll get those messages? Well, there is some talk that maybe the inspector general, Michael Horowitz, already has them. I don't know if that's the case. I do have every faith and confidence that Mr. Sessions will overturn everything to try and locate these texts. A couple of things about that, you know, maybe they were lost. Maybe it was innocence. Maybe it's just a strange coincidence, but it is a coincidence that they relate to the time period around the establishment of Mueller as special counsel. And when you layer that on the fact that there have been other strange coincidences in this matter, it makes it hard to defend what the FBI has done here. The other thing about it, though, the other way to look at it, Shannon, is, you know, of the text messages that I've been able to review, you know, if the ones that I've seen are as alarming and as troubling and as stunning as they really are, it does make you wonder what the ones we haven't seen yet might actually include. Now, have you seen this one has the reference to the so-called secret society? And what can you tell us about that if you have? I have. Actually, Chairman Gowdy and I were reviewing those text messages yesterday and came across that one. So there is a reference in the immediate aftermath of the election of Donald Trump where Page and Strzok refer to hitting thumb drives and maybe having the first meeting of the secret society. And when you take that in the context of their expressed, not just bias, but their intent to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president in the first place, and then some of the texts that were read in the intro about finishing the job and fixing things, it really does tell a troubling story that we need to investigate. Well, you are not surprised, I'm sure, that your colleagues across the aisle, the Democrats, don't see it that way. We've got a joint statement from the top Democrats on judiciary and intelligence, Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff saying this, Republicans are now attacking the FBI in order to undermine special counsel Mueller and protect President Trump, but their claims are directly at odds with the facts. So two things there. First of all, are you worried about folks rank and file who are working around the clock every day at these key law enforcement agencies feeling a little beat up by the public criticism? And secondly, do the Democrats have a point? To the latter, I don't think that the rank and file feel beat up because a lot of the rank and file that I worked with when I was a federal prosecutor and worked with the FBI are contacting me and say, keep the pressure on. Look, in a big barrel full of apples at a place like the FBI, there's going to be a few rotten ones. The problem here is that some of the rotten apples were at the very top around some of the most important investigations that were going on. With respect to the Democrats, we keep hearing the same thing over and over again. And you know, all we're doing is following the facts and evidence. And clearly, as these texts come out, they keep offering explanations for why they're not that bad. But Shannon, they just look bad. I want to ask you, too, about your statements that it's possible former FBI Director Comey would be brought back to the Hill for more testimony. You say that there are what you believe could be inconsistencies about different statements he's made regarding the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Could that happen? It could happen. I think it will happen. And there are inconsistencies now. Let me be clear. I think a former director Comey was very clear in his testimony. He said that no decision was made to charge Hillary Clinton or to not charge her with mishandling classified information until after her July 2nd, 2016 interview with the FBI. The problem is, these texts indicate that Page and Strzok and Lynch and virtually every member of the midyear exam team, which was the code name for the Hillary Clinton email investigation, knew days, weeks, and in some cases months before, that she wasn't going to be charged. And that's simply inconsistent with the testimony that he gave under oath. If all the folks working for the director knew that she wasn't going to be charged, I think the director had to know. And if he knew, why did he give a different testimony under oath? And very quickly, the memo that seems to be making all the headlines, suggesting intelligence, potentially government surveillance, used inappropriately, there were some of the allegations by those who've seen it. Do you think the memo should go public and when do you think that would happen? Well, it could happen relatively quickly. There's a process that's been identified. The problem that I have or the concern that I have is it's a process that hasn't been used before. I do want to be careful with respect to classified information. I want to make sure that processes that are for classifying information and protecting our national security secrets and surveillance tools that have allowed former federal prosecutors and terrorism prosecutors like me to help keep America safe, don't get damaged by the people that abuse them. So we do want to hold the folks accountable if there were abuses of the processes and the tools that we give law enforcement and counterintelligence, but we don't want to destroy the tools and processes along the way. All right. Congressman Ratcliffe, thank you for your time tonight. Good to have you with us. You bet. Thanks, Shannon.