Ex-FBI Agent Peter Strzok Says Trump Poses 'Counterintelligence Threat' to U.S.
Ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was assigned to investigate allegations of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, said President Donald Trump represents a "counterintelligence threat."
Strzok was fired from the bureau after text messages from 2016 were released that revealed anti-Trump remarks between himself and FBI lawyer Lisa Page. The texts expressed support for then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and prompted the president to personally blast Strzok on Twitter part of a wider conspiracy against his presidency in U.S. intelligence agencies. Strzok has penned a book, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, which is set to publish Tuesday.
Having spent more than 20 years as an FBI counterintelligence agent, Strzok said he regrets sending the messages to Page, which he said undermined the important work of the agency. The ex-FBI agent told the Associated Press Saturday he felt persecuted by the president and received menacing phone calls and messages from strangers in the wake of his anti-Trump text messages coming to light.
"Being subjected to outrageous attacks up to and including by the president himself, which are full of lies and mischaracterizations and just crude and cruel, is horrible," Strzok told the AP in an interview. "There's no way around it."
In his new book, Strzok wrote: "I deeply regret casually commenting about the things I observed in the headlines and behind the scenes, and I regret how effectively my words were weaponized to harm the Bureau and buttress absurd conspiracy theories about our vital work."
Strzok said the primary reason he wrote the book is to illustrate "first and foremost, the counterintelligence threat that I see in Donald Trump," adding that the administration's dealings with Russia left him "highly suspicious" Trump was compromised by the Russians.
The ex-FBI agent said Trump lied about financial dealings he had in Moscow — all things he said were rebuked by Trump and his supporters during the collusion investigation.
Strzok was part of the 2016 FBI investigation into whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — who at the time was the Democratic nominee for president —mishandled classified information. He told the AP that Clinton did mishandle her emails, but not in a way which would have merited prosecution.
Trump has repeatedly ridiculed Strzok and former FBI Director James Comey's handling of the Clinton investigation. "Just fired Agent Strzok, formerly of the FBI, was in charge of the Crooked Hillary Clinton sham investigation. It was a total fraud on the American public and should be properly redone!" the president tweeted in August 2018.
Trump went on to fire Comey in May 2017, which prompted congressional Democrats to step up impeachment efforts.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for additional remarks about Strzok's upcoming book Saturday morning.
