Agent’s removal may save Mueller probe
WASHINGTON — The firing of Peter Strzok, the former FBI official who became the poster child for President Trump’s and his supporters’ unfounded claims of an anti-Trump deep state inside the country’s top law enforcement agency, was likely politically motivated.
It was also likely done to save the Mueller investigation.
In recent weeks, speculation has been building in Washington about when — not if — Trump will move to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller probe. His Twitter feed is a growing hotbed of animosity toward both men, as well as for Strzok and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who despite his recusal from the Russian election interference investigation Mueller is leading has been repeatedly urged by Trump to stop it.
One reason for the president’s increased irritation: the likely imminent felony jury conviction of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort for a host of financial crimes, a potential watershed moment in the Mueller probe.
Sensing the likelihood that Trump could take actions to undermine the investigation, and spur a constitutional crisis in the process, FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich could have very well decided that Strzok had to go for the good of protecting the organization and the Mueller probe.
Whether Strzok’s transgressions warrant that penalty is up for debate. It was pretty stupid of him to text his extramarital girlfriend, also an FBI employee, politically incendiary comments about Trump during the campaign. Mueller rightly booted Strzok from his team when those texts were discovered over a year ago.
The FBI’s own Office of Professional Responsibility found Strzok’s behavior to be wrong, but found that a 60-day suspension and demotion from being a supervisor was “the appropriate punishment.”
So why did Bowdich go so far beyond that? And why now?
Perhaps Bowdich believes Strzok’s firing may serve as the valve for Trump to blow off enough steam to keep the pressure cooker from blowing. Trump and his supporters praised the move and Trump quickly turned his Twitter attention to Omarosa and other matters.
Now, Bowdich and FBI Director Christopher Wray must go the extra mile and give the same full-throated defense of the FBI that Strzok gave during his contentious congressional hearing last month. Trump’s path to discrediting the Mueller probe involves taking bulldozer to the reputation of the FBI. If they can’t stop that damage, Strzok’s axing won’t amount to much after all.