in january 2018, ratcliffe stated on fox news and twitter that he had seen a text message between fbi employees peter strzok and lisa page that referenced a "secret society," adding, "we learned today about information that in the immediate aftermath of his election, there may have been a ‘secret society’ of folks within the department of justice and the fbi, to include page and strzok, working against [trump].” his assertion briefly went viral on pro-trump media, and the next day republican senator ron johnson claimed that republican investigators had learned from an “informant" of meetings of a “secret society.” the text message did contain the expression "secret society," but it was soon learned to be a joke related to strzok's purchase of "beefcake" calendars of vladimir putin for distribution to fbi employees who had worked on the russian investigation.