One of the only times I’ve ever seen my father, a career military man and Vietnam veteran, express genuine concern over the direction of our country was in the wake of the FBI’s fall from grace under James Comey. Generally, my dad is upbeat about the perseverance of Americans because of his extensive study of our nation’s history and his belief in American exceptionalism. His disappointment that the FBI, one of the last agencies to lose its good standing among the American people, had succumbed to blatant partisan politics and could no longer be trusted on points of law enforcement and investigation was palpable . . . and heart-breaking.
I mention this only because the revelation that an FBI agent, Peter Strzok, who supervised both the Hillary email investigation and the Trump-Russia probe sent anti-Trump text messages to his alleged mistress, an FBI lawyer, goes straight to the heart of many Americans’ sense that the FBI should be fair and impartial, working with an eye on the bigger historical and legal picture, above the petty politics of the day.
To his credit, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation has already cost taxpayers over $5 million, shuffled Strzok off to the Siberian bowels of the FBI’s human resources department.
A top FBI agent at the center of both the Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations was removed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team for exchanging derogatory text messages about the president with a colleague.Peter Strzok, a veteran FBI investigator, was shuffled off to the FBI’s human resources department by Mueller after the Justice Department’s inspector general opened an investigation into the texts, The New York Times reported on Saturday.And according to The Washington Post, Strzok exchanged the messages with Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who was also assigned to and later removed from Mueller’s team. Strzok and Page, who works for FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, were reportedly having an extramarital affair.The text messages showed Strzok and Page reacting with anti-Trump sentiments to certain news events, including the presidential debates.Strzok was a major player in the Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations.He was the FBI’s lead investigator on the Clinton email investigation, so much so that he interviewed the former secretary of state on July 2, 2016.Days later, then-FBI Director James Comey announced that he would not be recommending charges against Clinton for mishandling classified information on her private email server.
The DOJ is investigating the Strzok-led FBI investigation of the Clinton email scandal.
The agent, Peter Strzok, is considered one of the most experienced and trusted F.B.I. counterintelligence investigators. He helped lead the investigation into whether Hillary Clinton mishandled classified information on her private email account, and then played a major role in the investigation into links between President Trump’s campaign and Russia.
But Mr. Strzok was reassigned this summer from Mr. Mueller’s investigation to the F.B.I.’s human resources department, where he has been stationed since. The people briefed on the case said the transfer followed the discovery of text messages in which Mr. Strzok and a colleague reacted to news events, like presidential debates, in ways that could appear critical of Mr. Trump.
A lawyer for Mr. Strzok declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department said that “we are aware of the allegation and are taking any and all appropriate steps.”
The inquiry into Mr. Strzok is being conducted by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, who is leading a broad examination of how the F.B.I. handled the Clinton email investigation. Mr. Horowitz is scrutinizing Mr. Comey’s decision to hold a news conference in July 2016 to announce that the bureau was recommending that Mrs. Clinton not be charged, and how Mr. Comey reopened the investigation just days before the 2016 election.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY