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FBI agent rejects GOP allegations of anti-Trump bias in contentious hearing FBI agent rejects GOP allegations of anti-Trump bias in contentious hearing
(35 minutes later)
An FBI agent whose anti-Trump text messages fuelled suspicions of partisan bias faced a bitterly contentious and occasionally chaotic hearing in Congress on Thursday, where he angrily rejected Republican allegations that he set out to stop Donald Trump from becoming president. An FBI agent whose anti-Trump text messages raised suspicion of bias in the Russia investigation aggressively defended his professionalism, telling lawmakers he never allowed personal views to impact official actions and that Republican attacks against him were “another victory notch in Putin’s belt”.
Peter Strzok testified publicly for the first time since being removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, telling lawmakers that anti-Trump texts he traded with an FBI lawyer in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election reflected personal views that he never once acted on. Peter Strzok, who played a leading role in the FBI investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, testified publicly for the first time on Thursday before a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees.
“At no time, in any of those texts, did those personal beliefs ever enter into the realm of any action I took,” Strzok said. “Let me be clear, unequivocally and under oath,” Strzok said in his opening statement, “not once in my 26 years of defending my nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took.”
He insisted under aggressive questioning that an August 2016 text in which he said “We’ll stop” a Trump presidency followed Trump’s denigration of the family of a dead US service member. He said it was his personal view, written late at night and off-the-cuff, of “horrible, disgusting behavior” by the Republican presidential candidate. He continued: “I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I truly believe that today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart.”
But, he added in a raised voice and emphatic tone: “It was in no way – unequivocally – any suggestion that me, the FBI, would take any action whatsoever to improperly impact the electoral process for any candidate.” Some Democrats applauded after he finished speaking. Republicans have seized on the private text messages between Strzok and FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, as evidence of what they argue is widespread political bias at the highest levels of the justice department. Trump has tweeted on several occasions about the exchanges as an example of what he believes is a politically-motivated “witch hunt” against him.
Republican members of the House judiciary and oversight committees grilled Strzok as they argued that the text messages exchanged with FBI lawyer Lisa Page color the outcome of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and undercut the ongoing investigation into Russian election interference. Strzok, a seasoned counterintelligence agent, helped lead both investigations but has since been reassigned to human resources. Special counsel Robert Mueller removed Strzok from the Russia investigation after the justice department’s inspector general discovered the derogatory messages between the agents, who were involved in a relationship. Page no longer works at the FBI.
“Agent Strzok had Hillary Clinton winning the White House before he finished investigating her,” said Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican chairman of the House oversight and government reform committee. “Agent Strzok had Donald Trump impeached before he even started investigating him. That is bias. Agent Strzok may not see it but the rest of the country does, and it is not what we want, expect or deserve from any law enforcement officer much less the FBI.” In one text message, dated 8 August 2016, three months before the election, Page asked: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Strzok replied: “No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.”
The hearing briefly devolved into chaos and open yelling as the judiciary committee chairman, Robert Goodlatte, said Strzok needed to answer Republicans’ questions and suggested they might recess the hearing and hold him in contempt. Democrats objected to Goodlatte’s repeated attempts to get Strzok to answer. Goodlatte eventually let the hearing proceed without calling the panel into recess. Strzok said he regretted the text messages – which were exchanged on work phones – and acknowledgedthey created the perception of bias. But he insisted his messages showed he was critical of candidates from both political parties – not only Trump. And Strzok said that the text message in which he said “we’ll stop it” was sent late at night after Trump “insulted” the family of army captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004.
In his opening statement, Strzok said he has never allowed personal opinions to affect his work, that he knew information during the campaign that had the potential to damage Trump but never contemplated leaking it and that the focus on him by Congress is misguided and plays into “our enemies campaign to tear America apart.” The hearing began with a fiery back and forth lashing between Strzok and Republican congressman Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, who accused the agent of harboring “ an unprecedented level of animus” against the president.
Strzok acknowledged that while his text message criticism was “blunt,” it was not directed at one person or political party and included jabs not only at Trump but also at Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders. The exchange escalated when Strzok declined to answer a question about how many individuals he had interviewed at the start of the Russia inquiry in the summer of 2016. Strzok said, “based on the direction of the FBI”, that he could not answer questions related to an ongoing investigation.
“Let me be clear, unequivocally and under oath: Not once in my 26 years of defending my nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took,” he said. Republican congressman Bob Goodlatte, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, intervened, threatening to hold Strzok in contempt of Congress if he didn’t answer the question. Democrats immediately challenged Goodlatte’s threat and attempted to adjourn the meeting.
He said he was one of the few people during the 2016 election who knew the details of Russian election interference and its possible connections with people in the Trump orbit, and that that information could have derailed Trump’s election chances. “But,” he said, “the thought of exposing that information never crossed my mind”. The exchange concluded with Strzok delivering a forceful defense of himself and the integrity of the FBI.
Although Strzok has said through his lawyer that he was eager to tell his side of the story, he made clear his exasperation at being the focal point of a congressional hearing at a time when Russian election interference has been successfully “sowing discord in our nation and shaking faith in our institutions”. “At every step, at every investigative decision, there were multiple layers of people above me, the assistant director, executive assistant director, deputy director and director of the FBI, and multiple layers of people below me, section chiefs, supervisors, unit chiefs, case agents and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions,” he said. “They would not tolerate any improper behavior in me any more than I would tolerate it in them. “
“I have the utmost respect for Congress’s oversight role, but I truly believe that today’s hearing is just another victory notch in Putin’s belt and another milestone in our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart,” Strzok said. “As someone who loves this country and cherishes its ideals, it is profoundly painful to watch and even worse to play a part in.” “And the suggestion that I, in some dark chamber in the FBI, would somehow cast aside all of these procedures, all of these safeguards and somehow be able to do this is astounding to me,” he said. “It simply couldn’t happen.”
He also flatly rejected the president’s characterizations of Mueller’s work and the threat of Russian election interference, saying, “This investigation is not politically motivated, it is not a witch-hunt, it is not a hoax.” Democrats have called the hearing a “politically-motivated charade” and an attempt by Republicans to undermine Mueller’s Russia investigation.
The contentious hearing follows hours of closed door questioning last week. Congressman Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the committee, highlighted that point during his opening remarks. As he spoke, his aides held posters with the faces of five Trump associates who have pled guilty in the Mueller investigation.
But Republicans eager for ways to discredit Mueller’s investigation have for months held up the texts from Strzok and Page to support allegations of anti-Trump bias within federal law enforcement. The hearing comes one month after the release of a 500-page inspector general’s report, which concluded the pair’s text messages “cast a cloud” over the investigation into Clinton’s email server. The report was critical but ultimately concluded political bias did not play a role in the agency’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton.
The justice department’s inspector general has criticized Strzok and Page for creating the appearance of impropriety through the texts. But in a recent report it said it found no evidence of political bias in the FBI’s decision not to pursue criminal charges against Clinton. House Republicans meanwhile reached an agreement with Page to testify before the committees on Friday after threatening to hold her in contempt for defying a subpoena to appear on Wednesday.
Page’s lawyer told the Associated Press that she wanted to share her side of the story before the committee, but had requested more time to review the documents and prepare for the hearing.
Trump-Russia investigationTrump-Russia investigation
Robert MuellerRobert Mueller
US politicsUS politics
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
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