Fired FBI officer defends agency against 'one-sided' claims
Former FBI agent Peter Strzok criticized Republicans for claiming that the agency is politically biased, despite previously being fired for his anti-Trump texts.
Former FBI official Peter Strzok defended the FBI once again against allegations that the agency is "one-sided" despite previously being fired in 2018 for sending out anti-Trump texts.
On Monday, Strzok appeared on "CNN Newsroom" to discuss the FBI raid against former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month. Trump is currently being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over whether he violated the Espionage Act over keeping classified materials.
Over the past two weeks, Trump as well as several prominent Republicans have criticized the FBI for what they perceive to be a coordinated attack by the Biden administration against a political opponent. Several Democrats and media pundits have attacked these critiques as "dangerous," claiming that they are putting FBI agents’ lives at risk.
Strzok similarly called out Republicans, particularly Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s, R-Texas, assertion that the FBI and DOJ have lost credibility.
The seal of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is seen outside of its headquarters in Washington, DC on August 15, 2022. - Threats against the FBI and law enforcement agencies have increased following the search and seizure of top secret documents from former US president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate where he resides. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
LEVIN CALLS THE FBI’S RAID ON TRUMP’S HOME IS THE ‘GREATEST INTERFERENCE IN OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM’
Crenshaw said told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview, "You’re seeing everyone coalesce. It doesn’t matter what side of the issue they’re on with Trump. You’ve seen a lot coalesce around this one, because it does seem unjust. And there does seem to be a long history of loss of credibility at the Department of Justice at the hands of Democrats. And I think people are rightfully frustrated about that."
Strzok responded, "Well, Representative Crenshaw is absolutely wrong. First off, there is more than a yearlong investigation, extraordinarily intrusive into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the time she was running for President of the United States. So I don’t want to hear that this is some sort of one-sided Department of Justice or FBI who only investigates Republicans. That’s nonsense."
Although Strzok asserted that the FBI is not politically one-sided, Strzok himself was an example of bias in the agency four years ago. Strzok was fired in 2018 after several texts between him and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page from 2016 with anti-Trump bias were discovered. Among the texts included an assertion from Strzok to Page that "we won’t allow" Trump to be elected.
Peter Strzok was fired from the FBI in 2018 after his anti-Trump texts were revealed. (Reuters)
Strzok was previously a member of Robert Mueller’s investigation team against claims of Russian election interference.
On Sunday, Strzok also appeared to push more anti-Trump bias in a tweet where he compared himself to General George Patton fighting in "the great assault on American democracy."
"Thirty years from now, when you're sitting around your fireside with your grandson on your knee and he asks you, ‘What did you do in the great assault on American democracy?’ You won't have to say, ‘Well, I shoveled sh*t defending Trump,’" Strzok tweeted in response to an article by legal analyst Jonathan Turley.
Turley criticized several other statements from Strzok following his firing.
"For his part, Strzok appears eager to confirm the allegations made against him. Yet, these public statements only fuel the concern of many that the raid was another ‘insurance policy’ by the FBI. For his former colleagues at the FBI, Strzok’s trolling can hardly be a welcomed addition to the public controversy over their investigation," Turley wrote.
PETER STRZOK DEFENDS FBI AFTER TRUMP MAR-A-LAGO RAID: ‘TRUST WHAT THE FBI IS DOING’
On Aug. 15, Strzok attacked Republicans for not complaining about the FBI's investigation of Hillary Clinton on MSNBC’s "Morning Joe."
"There's absolute silence when the FBI is investigating former Secretary Clinton," Strzok said. "There's absolute silence when the FBI is doing things that isn't targeting them. So I think this is a one-sided narrative that has been developed and amplified, particularly by President Trump, going back to 2015 and 2016."
The FBI has been criticized for raiding former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home (Fox News)
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Although Strzok claimed that the FBI investigation against Clinton proves the agency’s non-partisan policies, the former Democrat presidential candidate appeared to be fundraising off of the past investigation following the Mar-a-Lago raid.
Fox News’ Cortney O’Brien contributed to this report.