Tag: Peter Strzok

Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok: Trump Clearly ‘Compromised By The Russians’

“They hold leverage over him that makes him incapable of placing the national interests … ahead of his own,” Strzok said.

A former FBI agent who worked on then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election said it’s “clear” that President Donald Trump was “compromised by the Russians.”

Former FBI counterintelligence officer Peter Strzok told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he believed the Kremlin gained “leverage” over Trump through certain “financial entanglements.”

“Look, I think it is clear: I believed at the time in 2016, and I continue to believe that Donald Trump is compromised by the Russians,” Strzok told host Chuck Todd. “And when I say that, I mean that they hold leverage over him that makes him incapable of placing the national interests, the national security, ahead of his own.” Continue reading.

Peter Strzok would like to clear a few things up

Peter Strzok would like to clear a few things up

“I’m sorry to bother you. But it turns out Trump just accused me of treason.”

Peter Strzok, who was still an FBI employee that day in January 2018 and couldn’t respond to the president’s attack, was appealing to his boss: “The bureau can’t let this stand,” he pleaded.

“I’m sorry, Pete,” came the response. “We’re not going to say anything.”

Nearly three years later, Strzok — who led the FBI’s Russia investigation, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, until he was removed over several anti-Trump texts he’d sent during the election amid an affair with a colleague — is finally able to speak publicly and on his terms for the first time since he joined the FBI more than two decades ago. Continue reading.

Rod Rosenstein says he made call to release Strzok-Page texts

Peter Strzok and Lisa Page filed separate lawsuits against the Justice Department last year.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein authorized the release to the media of text messages between two highly placed FBI employees who exchanged criticism of then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, the Justice Department has revealed in a new court filing.

Rosenstein also said in the court filing submitted shortly before midnight Friday that he made the decision to share the messages with the press in part to protect FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page from the drip effect of incremental releases of the texts by lawmakers or others.

In the messages, Strzok and Page regularly disparaged Trump and appeared to seek to reassure each other he could not be elected. Both called Trump an “idiot” and said Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton deserved to win. Continue reading.

In New Filing, FBI Agent Strzok Uses Trump’s Boasting Against Him

Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who was fired after texts showing his deep dislike for President Donald Trump were revealed, accused the government of violating his rights to privacy and free speech in a new court filing. The allegations, which are part of his lawsuit challenging his termination, used Trump’s own words against the Justice Department, arguing that the president’s claims undermine the administration’s argument in the case.

Strzok alleges that he was terminated because of his personal opposition to Trump, which is protected by the First Amendment. He has also argued, as has former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, that the release of his texts with Page constituted a violation of privacy. However, the Justice Department contends that its actions were within bounds because Page and Strzok’s communications occurred over their work phones and they discussed FBI business.

Page and Strzok’s extramarital affair was exposed in the publication of the texts, a fact which Trump has exploited in his effort to demonize the pair as part of a supposed “deep state” conspiracy against him. They also both worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the Russia investigation, two highly politicized probes. Continue reading

FBI fires Strzok after anti-Trump texts

The following article by Olivia Beavers was posted on the Hill website August 13, 2018:

Peter Strzok Credit: Jack Gruber, USA Today Network

The FBI has fired Peter Strzok, the counterintelligence agent who came under fire for sending disparaging text messages about President Trump and other political figures during the 2016 election.

Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, confirmed the firing, which took place on Friday. He blasted the decision in a statement, saying the “Deputy Director of the FBI overruled the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and departed from established precedent by firing 21-year FBI veteran Peter Strzok.”

“The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director [Christopher] Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters,” Goelman continued in the statement.

View the complete article here.

Peter Strzok just gave a hard-to-rebut defense of the objectivity of the Russia investigation’s origins

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website July 12, 2018:

Peter Strzok Credit: Jack Gruber, USA Today Network

To hear President Trump tell it, FBI agent Peter Strzok was hopelessly biased against him and his candidacy. Trump has tweeted criticisms of Strzok repeatedly, often in personally disparaging terms, and on at least two occasions has suggested that Strzok’s involvement in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election had a specific goal: preventing him from becoming president.

Strzok was a central player in the dueling investigations during the 2016 campaign. He was involved in the initial investigation into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and opened the investigation into possible connections between Trump’s campaign and the Russian effort to influence the election’s outcome. He was subsequently involved in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s continuation of that investigation until Mueller learned of texts Strzok sent to Lisa Page, another FBI employee with whom the agent was engaged in an extramarital relationship. Those texts included some disparaging Trump in stark terms, prompting Mueller to remove him from the effort last July.

Trump has highlighted those texts as evidence that the investigation into him is biased for months. The president retweeted a particularly significant one last month.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Exclusive: Controversial FBI agent co-wrote initial draft of explosive Comey letter reopening Clinton email probe

The following article by Manu Raju, Laura Jarrett and Jeremy Herb was posted on the CNN website February 1, 2018:

(CNN) — Emails obtained by CNN show the FBI agent at the center of a Capitol Hill storm played a key role in a controversial FBI decision that upended Hillary Clinton’s campaign just days before the 2016 election: the letter to Congress by then-FBI Director James Comey announcing the bureau was investigating newly discovered Clinton emails.

The new revelation about FBI agent Peter Strzok comes as Republicans accuse him of being sympathetic to Clinton while seeking to undermine Donald Trump during the heat of the 2016 campaign season. Continue reading “Exclusive: Controversial FBI agent co-wrote initial draft of explosive Comey letter reopening Clinton email probe”