Strzok is a patriot, not a ‘sick loser’
FBI agent’s lawyer: President has attacked Strzok for speaking his mind
The president of the United States used the term “sick loser” Sunday to describe a man who has helped keep our country safe for more than two decades. The tweet followed months of attacks on this Army veteran and law enforcement official, including one in which the president accused him of treason. So what monstrous act did this man commit? He spoke his mind.
Pete Strzok, who is my client, served four years in the 101st Airborne and then joined the FBI, where he has spent the past 22 years working to protect this country’s national security. Every agent, prosecutor and U.S. intelligence community officer who has spoken publicly about Pete has described him as independent, professional, skilled and without bias of any kind.
So why this barrage of attacks on his character and this effort to portray him as a hyperpartisan member of a “deep state” conspiracy determined to thwart the will of the American people? It is all part of a calculated political strategy to demonize Pete, the FBI and the Justice Department in order to pre-emptively discredit the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Unfortunately, Pete inadvertently provided ammunition to this effort by expressing personal political views to another FBI employee. In several of these text messages, he was critical of then-candidate Donald Trump. But as Pete has played by the rules, fully cooperating in an investigation and now agreeing to testify before Congress, the president and his allies have done the opposite. They have spent months cynically asserting that one- or two-word snippets somehow prove that FBI investigations of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russia were biased. But in fact, the independent Inspector General investigation found Pete had repeatedly pushed for more aggressive action in the Clinton probe, and it did not address Russia at all.
The reality is that Pete did nothing more than express his personal opinions in private conversations. His attackers fail to mention that he criticizes a range of Democrats and Republicans, including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Loretta Lynch. In one text, he labels himself a “Conservative Dem.” In another he says someone pegs him as a vote for John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio.
Pete is deeply biased in one area — toward American democracy and the need to vigorously protect it. His texts are fiercely critical of foreign adversaries, such as Russia, and foreign rivals, such as China, and passionately protective of the United States. And they show his pride in the country he loves: “I’m glad I’m on Team USA.”
Other accusations are just as absurd as those regarding the texts. Pete did not “back-burner” the analysis of Anthony Weiner’s laptop as part of the Clinton investigation. As the IG report noted, he considered the Russia investigation a priority at that point. But as the report also noted, when Pete learned the laptop might contain relevant emails, he directed two experienced investigators to go to New York to determine its content. They were told their trip was premature and didn’t go. But subsequent delays in the forensic examination were the result of bureaucratic snafus, not any action by Pete.
If what Pete has done in 20 years of law enforcement is not enough to convince you, consider what he hasn’t done. In October 2016, Pete was one of a handful of people at the FBI who knew the full scope and gravity of the Russia investigation. Significantly harming — even stopping — the Trump presidency could have been accomplished by leaking that information to the news media. Instead, Pete and others at the FBI went out of their way to prevent leaks and, in the weeks before the election, actively ensured that news reports didn’t overplay the seriousness of the probe.
These aren’t the actions of a partisan conspirator, they are the actions of an American patriot.