The FBI’s media chief and the head of the Justice Department’s anti-espionage section are both departing.
Two more senior government officials who were prominently discussed in text messages exchanged by FBI personnel formerly assigned to the Trump-Russia investigation are leaving their positions.
Mike Kortan, FBI assistant director for public affairs, is set to retire next week, an FBI spokeswoman confirmed. In addition, the chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, David Laufman, resigned this week, a department spokesman said.
Both men are discussed in text messages sent by senior FBI Agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page. President Donald Trump and many Republican lawmakers have argued that the texts are evidence of anti-Trump bias at senior levels of the Justice Department and FBI.
While the texts contain derogatory mentions of Trump, the messages made public thus far don’t attribute that sentiment to Kortan or Laufman, and there’s no indication that either departure is related to the recent flap.
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