Fired former senior FBI agent Peter Strzok, whose text messages with ex-lover and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page revealed anti-Trump bias and gave the impression of a conspiracy within the FBI to target Trump, spoke out Thursday in a rare public comment after Trump once again criticized him and Page, saying, “…America deserves better.”
Page, so far, has not commented on Trump’s remarks.
Strzok’s demeanor at a July 12, 2018 House hearing unsettled many observers.
Trump spoke about Strzok and Page during a White House speech marking his impeachment trial acquittal the day before by the Senate.
Strzok spoke out via Twitter after his attorney Aitan Goelman commented. Goelman said, “Angered by the disclosures of yet more instances of his betrayal of our national security in the service of his own political advantage, President Trump raged and threatened those public servants tasked with investigating or testifying about his serial misconduct…Peter Strzok, a patriotic career counterintelligence agent whose conduct in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has been vindicated by two independent IG investigations, today found himself targeted by his President in yet another unhinged attack….”
Angered by the disclosures of yet more instances of his betrayal of our national security in the service of his own political advantage, President Trump raged and threatened those public servants tasked with investigating or testifying about his serial misconduct.
— AITAN GOELMAN (@AitanGoelman) February 6, 2020
Peter Strzok, a patriotic career counterintelligence agent whose conduct in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has been vindicated by two independent IG investigations, today found himself targeted by his President in yet another unhinged attack….
— AITAN GOELMAN (@AitanGoelman) February 7, 2020
Strzok, who hadn’t tweeted since last August when he announced a lawsuit over his firing, affirmed Goelman’s representation of him and then spoke out for himself, “1/2 From my attorney @AitanGoelman…2/2 I will have a great deal more to say about the president’s attacks on those with responsibility for holding him accountable. America deserves better.”
1/2 From my attorney @AitanGoelman https://t.co/a1eeXdEXDN
— Pete Strzok (@petestrzok) February 7, 2020
2/2 I will have a great deal more to say about the president’s attacks on those with responsibility for holding him accountable.
America deserves better. https://t.co/ywx5R07fOi
— Pete Strzok (@petestrzok) February 7, 2020
Excerpt via White House transcript of President Trump’s comments on Strzok and Page:
So that’s the story. We’ve been treated very unfairly. Fortunately, we have great men and women that came to our defense. If we didn’t, this would have been a horrific incident for our country. When you have Lisa and Peter, the lovers, the FBI lovers: “I want to believe the path you threw out for” Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. That’s the office. “There’s no way he gets elected” — meaning me. “There’s no way he gets elected.”
This is Peter, to Lisa. He’s probably trying to impress her, for obvious reasons. (Laughter.) “There’s no way he gets elected. But I’m afraid we can’t take the risk.” Now, think of this. In other words, if I get elected, they can’t — “they”; two low-lifes — they can’t take the risk. They can’t take the risk. Think of it.
So that’s the story. We’ve been treated very unfairly. Fortunately, we have great men and women that came to our defense. If we didn’t, this would have been a horrific incident for our country. When you have Lisa and Peter, the lovers, the FBI lovers: “I want to believe the path you threw out for” Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. That’s the office. “There’s no way he gets elected” — meaning me. “There’s no way he gets elected.”
This is Peter, to Lisa. He’s probably trying to impress her, for obvious reasons. (Laughter.) “There’s no way he gets elected. But I’m afraid we can’t take the risk.” Now, think of this. In other words, if I get elected, they can’t — “they”; two low-lifes — they can’t take the risk. They can’t take the risk. Think of it.
But I can tell you, in my opinion, these are the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I’ve ever seen. They said — this is Strzok: “God, Hillary should win 100 million to one.” This is about me. This is an agent from the FBI. Look how they let her off. Thirty-three thousand emails deleted. Nothing happens to her. Nothing happens. It’s unbelievable.
But think of that — “God, Hillary should win” — when these guys are investigating Hillary. Then they go to work for Mueller — the two of them — and when Muller found out that everybody knew that they were 100 percent this way, he let them go. But they deleted all of their emails and text messages.
So when we got the phone, they were all deleted. Could you imagine the treasure trove? They illegally deleted. So they left. They left Bob Mueller. He had the look, but he didn’t have a lot of other things. Always had the look. Mr. G-Man.
And I love the FBI and the FBI loves me — 99 percent. It was the top scum. And the FBI people don’t like the top scum.
So think of that: 100 million to one. And he’s investigating me. And then, “God, Trump is a loathsome human being, isn’t he?” These are the people looking at me. I’m really not a bad person. And Page said, “Yes, he’s awful.” How would you like to have that? This is just — this is the good stuff. There’s stuff a hundred times worse than that. These are all dirty people.
And now, I just heard that they’re suing the United States of America because they were interfered with. We’re not going to let it happen. Just not going to let it happen. We cannot let this happen to our country. We can’t. (Applause.)
So, I’m going to leave now. And I don’t know if any of you have anything to say. You could say it. But this is sort of a day of celebration, because we went through hell.
