Disgraced FBI Agent Peter Strzok Sues for His Job Back
Talk about chutzpah.
Americans even casually interested in politics will remember the name of Peter Strzok, the disgraced former FBI agent who became notorious because of text messages he exchanged with a now-former FBI attorney about Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Now, Americans will get to hear his name again — in a lawsuit suing for his old job back.
According to The Associated Press, Strzok filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming the FBI had succumbed to “unrelenting pressure” from the White House when it fired Strzok.
The suit also claims Strzok was being punished for having political opinions, according to the AP.
It also claims the Justice Department violated Strzok’s privacy when it shared hundreds of his texts with Congress, texts that were obtained by the news media.
“The campaign to publicly vilify Special Agent Strzok contributed to the FBI’s ultimate decision to unlawfully terminate him,” the lawsuit states, according to the AP, “as well as to frequent incidents of public and online harassment and threats of violence to Strzok and his family that began when the texts were first disclosed to the media and continue to this day.”
The effrontery is astounding.
The publication of Strzok’s numerous texts with then-FBI attorney (and Strzok mistress) Lisa Page gave Americans their first real look at the power structure in Washington that had mobilized in support of Hillary Clinton against the Trump presidential campaign.
One of the most infamous of the texts involved Strzok’s vow to Page that Trump would never make it to the Oval Office.
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page wrote in August 2016.
The response from Strzok, the bureau’s deputy chief of counterintelligence, was definite.
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded.
Almost anyone reading that text would assume Strzok was assuring his frightened lover that they and their like-minded colleagues were going to stop the Trump campaign from succeeding.
But according to the AP, Strzok’s lawsuit states that what he really meant was that “we, the American people” would never vote for Trump for president.
That doesn’t pass the laugh test, and Strzok and his attorneys probably know it.
But they also likely don’t care.
What he needs is a sympathetic courtroom to hear his complaint – and if nothing else, America has learned from the FBI’s sham investigation of Hillary Cinton (by then-Agent Peter Strzok), the Russian “collusion” investigation and pretty much the whole Trump presidency that his opponents have no problems finding sympathetic courtrooms and judges.
It would be for the good of the country if Strzok and his ilk simply disappeared from the public scene. Instead, he’s filing a lawsuit demanding his old job back, back pay and, according to AP, a “declaration that the FBI had violated his rights.”
Coming from a guy who was clearly interested in swinging a presidential election in the way he favored, violating the rights of millions of American voters in the process, that’s pretty rich.
That’s chutzpah.
CORRECTION, Aug. 7, 2019: This article has been edited to make clear the Justice Department released Stzrok’s texts to congressional committees. The texts were then obtained by the news media.
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