FBI lover Peter Strzok accuses Justice Department of only going after Donald Trump’s critics and letting off anti-Hillary Clinton agents as he steps up court battle over being fired
- Peter Strzok sued the FBI and Justice Department, saying they illegally fired him in 2018 because of his anti-Trump political views
- The government moved to dismiss the case but Strzok fired back Tuesday
- He claims pro-Trump FBI agents are being protected, and that his bosses violated his privacy by recovering anti-Trump texts from his government phone
- The infamous texts showed Strzok and his lover Lisa Page portraying themselves as the last line of defense between Trump and America
- They texted about an ‘insurance policy,’ which Republicans have argued was the point of the Russia investigation
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok argued Tuesday in a court filing that the Justice Department illegally fired him because it learned through his text messages that he had been stridently opposed to Donald Trump winning the 2016 election.
And, his lawyers claimed, the administration is protecting pro–Trump FBI agents while punishing the president’s detractors.
Strzok was an integral part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe until texts between Strzok and his lover, then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page, became public.
In a 53-page response to the DOJ, Strzok claimed the agency and the FBI violated his constitutional rights to privacy and free speech by showing him the door.
Peter Strzok sued the FBI and Justice Department, saying they illegally fired him in 2018 because of his anti-Trump political views
Strzok claims pro-Trump FBI agents are being protected, and that his bosses violated his privacy by recovering anti-Trump texts from his government phone
He sued in August over his termination in 2018. Tuesday’s papers were his response to the government’s moion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The text messages, including an infamous boast that Strzok and Page had an ‘insurance policy’ in case Trump beat Hillary Clinton, were recovered from Strzok’s government-issued phone.
Approving of that search ‘would leave thousands of career federal government employees without protections from discipline over the content of their political speech,’ Strzok’s lawyers wrote.
‘The fact that a workplace conversation can be discovered does not render it unprotected.’
Page (left) became a top target of President Donald Trump after the Department of Justice released text messages in which she and colleague Peter Strzok (right), with whom she was having an extramarital affair, criticized the then-candidate
The lawyers recounted a case where agents celebrated Trump’s victory and rejoinced that with Clinton’s defeat there would not be a ‘criminal’ in the White House.’
‘The administration has taken a decidedly uneven approach to expressions of political views by government employees, seeking to punish perceived adversaries like Strzok while actively protecting its allies even when their political speech in support of the President or against his political rivals constitutes a clear violation of federal law.’
Tuesday’s court filing argues that it’s ‘plausible’ Trump personally pressured senior law enforcement officials to get rid of Strzok, citing the lassuit’s description of ‘an orchestrated campaign by the President of the United States to pressure the FBI into firing Strzok because of the content of his speech (i.e., his viewpoint).’
‘That claim is unquestionably plausible,’ the lawyers argued; ‘indeed, it is bolstered by a seemingly endless stream of decidedly unpresidential tweets, President Trump’s accusations that Strzok committed “treason,” and by contemporaneous news accounts of the President personally imploring the Attorney General and the FBI Director to fire Strzok.’
Former FBI attorney Lisa Page appeared on MSNBC this month to blast the president for mocking her and Strzok in a campaign rally with a near-orgazmic interpretation of their texts
Page filed her own lawsuit this month against the FBI and DOJ, claiming they violated her privacy rights.
She said this month on MSNBC that she was upset wwhen Trump apppeared to simulate a sex act between her and Strzok while he spoke to supporters at a political rally.
‘Honestly I wasn’t planning to [come forward] and I didn’t want to,’ she said. ‘When the president finally did that vile sort of simulated sex act at a rally in Minneapolis, I just finally had to accept it’s not getting better and being quiet isn’t making this go away. And this wasn’t working for me anymore.’
The DOJ inspector general said this month in a public report that the lengthy Russia probe’s launch wasn’t inspired by political bias. But the report notes anti-Trump ‘hostility’ from Page and Strzok once the investigation was underway.