They liked James Comey.

They really, really liked James Comey, at least as much as they seem to detest Donald Trump.

The Associated Press is reporting on new text messages between FBI agent Peter Strzok and his mistress, FBI attorney Lisa Page.

In particular, on the day in July 2016, when Comey sat before Congress and defended the FBI’s decision to not charge Hillary Clinton for any wrongdoing in her handling of sensitive emails, the illicit lovers couldn’t say enough good about their boss – or enough bad about those questioning him.

Said Page of Congress:

Congress, wrote FBI lawyer Lisa Page in one text, is “utterly worthless.” ″Less than worthless,” replied Peter Strzok, a seasoned FBI counterintelligence agent assigned to that investigation. “Utterly contemptible.”

So what about Comey’s performance?

“God he is SO good,” Strzok said. “I know,” Page responded. “Brilliant public speaker. And brilliant distillation of fact.”

So, two enthusiastic thumbs up, then.

Those texts were included in 384 pages of texts that the Justice Department provided to Congress, as well as to the Associated Press for review.

Those two had a lot to talk about, apparently, and it wasn’t all about Trump or Comey. Among others, they discussed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, an encryption court battle with Apple, and general discussion about the FBI, their colleagues, and future plans.

They really did like Comey.

Among the thousands of texts, the dialogue about Comey is especially striking because it further calls into question White House characterizations of an FBI in “tatters,” where “countless” agents complained about their director before his removal. Employee surveys released last year show FBI employees consistently gave Comey high marks. And emails published this week by the Lawfare blog show FBI field office leaders using words like “profound sadness” and “hard to understand” in spreading the news about Comey’s May 9 termination, one of the events now under investigation by Mueller for possible obstruction of justice.

I saw those emails. The White House’s characterization of the FBI’s attitude towards Comey was way off.

In speaking of Trump, they used a lot of words like, “loathsome,” “idiot,” and “disaster.”

They talked about Trump associates, like Roger Stone, and Strzok apparently went ape in a message about the “cheating (expletive) Russians.”

The emails actually cover about a 2 year time frame, beginning with the Clinton email scandal in 2015.

They show a build up of tensions, surrounding the investigation and the optics of having Attorney General Loretta Lynch meet Bill Clinton on the tarmac, shortly before Comey announced the decision not to charge Hillary Clinton with anything.

Still, they did appreciate their director.

The two officials watched, and though Strzok lamented that he was a “control freak” and that some answers were imprecise, they also texted admiringly of his performance — even his joked that he had to use the bathroom for the last half-hour.

“I did get a chuckle out of D’s gotta pee joke…,” Strzok said.

“Everyone did,” Page replied. “That’s why he’s as good at this as he is.”

How these texts will be used, is hard to say.

We’ve already seen Trump’s faithful attempt to say they’re proof of a biased plot to bring down the president, but the proof of that just isn’t there.

To date, all they have is two lovers talking about a candidate they don’t like, at most. That’s not treason or an attempted coup, as some have nonsensically claimed. It’s just their opinion, and if they want to end the Russia probe, these don’t seem to be enough to make it happen.