The FBI fired embattled agent Peter Strzok this past Friday reportedly amid accusations of improper conduct and repeated attacks by President Donald Trump on the bureau and the Justice Department over the handling of the Russia investigation, Newsweek informed.
“Mr. Strzok was subject to the standard FBI review and disciplinary process after conduct highlighted in the IG (inspector general) report was referred to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility,” the agency said in a statement to CNBC.
According to Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, the handling of his client’s case “isn’t the normal process in any way more than name.” With the exception of the agency’s director, FBI agents do not usually become household names, but Strzok became a national figure for his role in the probes of Russia election meddling and Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
Strzok’s missteps in both investigations were part of the Justice Department inspector general’s report about the Clinton and Russia investigations, released in June. The report included text messages Strzok exchanged with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and their expressions of dislike for then-candidate Trump, Newsweek adds.
Strzok was also part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russia’s election interference, but Mueller removed him from the investigation after learning about the texts.
According to The New Yorker, despite all the noise and fury, there is now a basic question that needs an answer: Why was Strzok fired? Before the Clinton and Trump investigations, Strzok had racked up twenty years of distinguished service in the Bureau, rising to the position of deputy assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division, the news outlet adds.
On Monday, Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, claimed that his client’s firing had been ordered, late last week, by David Bowdich, the deputy director of the FBI, despite the fact that the Bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which normally handles disciplinary matters, had recommended a lesser punishment: a demotion and a sixty-day suspension. As of late Monday afternoon, there was still no official word from Bowdich or his boss, Christopher Wray, about Strzok’s dismissal, The New Yorker added.
Meanwhile, a tweet from a self-described parody account “paying tribute” to Strzok went viral after the agent was fired from the law-enforcement agency, Business Insider writes.
“I have been fired for expressing my personal opinion in private texts about a dictator that history will soon deem not only a Russian asset but an unhinged madman threatening the sovereignty of the United States of America,” the parody account “@notpeterstrzok” tweeted on Monday afternoon.
The tweet has since received over tens of thousands of likes and retweets as of Monday evening. An hour later, the parody account tweeted again and railed against Trump, who had accused Strzok of being biased in multiple tweets and speeches.
“We currently live in a country where an FBI agent lost his job for sending anti-Trump text messages, yet Trump is still the President despite his campaign having 75 contacts & 25 meetings with Russian operatives WHILE Russia attacked America,” the tweet from the parody account read.
Trump himself took to Twitter Saturday to blast Strzok, Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. “Will the FBI ever recover it’s [sic] once stellar reputation, so badly damaged by Comey, McCabe, Peter S and his lover, the lovely Lisa Page, and other top officials now dismissed or fired? So many of the great men and women of the FBI have been hurt by these clowns and losers!” the President tweeted over the weekend.
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