Disgraced FBI Agent Strzok Gets $1.2 Million
Taxpayers will have to shell out $1.2 million agreed to by the Biden administration to settle a lawsuit by Peter Strzok, the disgraced FBI agent who claimed his rights were violated when his inflammatory emails against President Trump were made public. Another suit is pending by Strzok looking to get his job back and retire with full government benefits.
“Trump’s not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Lisa Page, an FBI attorney at the time, wrote to Strzok, to which he replied: “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.”
The texts were singled out by Trump as evidence of an internal conspiracy to keep him out of the White House and hamper his administration once he took office. When the texts were revealed, Strzok was fired by special counsel Robert Mueller, who tried to prove that Trump colluded with the Russians in his 2016 election against Hillary Clinton. After two years and millions of dollars in expenses, Mueller’s “Witch Hunt,” as Trump deemed it, failed to show a connection between the 45th president’s campaign and the Russians.
Page, who is alleged to have had an extramarital affair with Strzok when the text messages were going back and forth, also received a government payout, though reportedly less than Strzok. They both left the FBI in 2018.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions reported that Strzok and Page exchanged nearly 50,000 texts during the Trump years, including messages indicating that President Obama wanted to be updated on the Russia probe.
“God Hillary should win 100,000,000 – 0,” Strzok wrote to Page before the election. “God Trump is a loathsome human….omg he’s an idiot,” Page said in another exchange. “He’s awful,” Strzok replied.
Trump held up the FBI employees as prime examples of how the “Deep State” was aligned against him.
During the 2016 election, insiders known as “Government Gangsters” manipulated the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to get clearance to spy on Trump and his associates, activities that kicked off years of coordinated attacks that included two failed impeachments, a raid on his home, numerous lawfare suits, and a constant drumbeat of negative coverage by the mainstream media.
Cleaning out the “swamp” in Washington has been a consistent Trump theme, an intention that has put him at odds with thousands of government workers, mostly Democrats, who inhabit Washington. The November election—Trump vs. Vice President Kamala Harris—is viewed as a contest of business as usual against an outsider who wants to pare down a corrupt federal behemoth.
The Biden-Harris administration has also settled suits with other government figures involved with the Trump bashing, including Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who alleged the former president improperly fired him and should get pension benefits.