More than 50,000 texts exchanged between FBI officials Strzok and Page, Sessions says

More than 50,000 texts were exchanged between two FBI officials who have come under fire for exchanging anti-Trump messages during the 2016 election, Attorney General Jeff Sessions revealed Monday. 

The figure surfaced as lawmakers have been pressing for answers after revelations that the FBI “failed to preserve” five months of texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

“We will leave no stone unturned to confirm with certainty why these text messages are not now available to be produced and will use every technology available to determine whether the missing messages are recoverable from another source,” Sessions said in a statement provided to Fox News. “If we are successful, we will update the congressional committees immediately.”

The missing messages from Strzok and Page span a crucial window, between the presidential transition and the launch of Robert Mueller’s Russia probe -- where both officials previously were assigned.

“After reviewing the voluminous records on the FBI’s servers, which included over 50,000 texts, the Inspector General discovered the FBI’s system failed to retain text messages for approximately 5 months between December 14, 2017 to May 17, 2017,” Sessions said.

That number does not include the five months’ worth of texts that are missing.

Sessions said the Justice Department informed the congressional committees of the missing text messages on Friday.

“I have spoken to the Inspector General and a review is already underway to ascertain what occurred and to determine if these records can be recovered in any other way,” Sessions said. “If any wrongdoing were to be found to have caused this gap, appropriate legal disciplinary action measures will be taken.”

Earlier Monday, lawmakers pressed the Justice Department to determine how the messages were lost.