PERSON: Peter Strzok

Professor

Peter Paul Strzok II (/strʌk/, like struck; born March 7, 1970) is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent. He was the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division and led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Previously, he had been the chief of the division’s Counterespionage Section and led the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server.

In June and July 2017, Strzok worked on Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation into any links or coordination between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government. In July 2017, Mueller removed Strzok from the Russia investigation after text message exchanges between Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page contained criticisms of Trump and his supporters. News of the text messages led Trump, Republican congressmen and right-wing media to speculate that Strzok participated in a conspiracy to undermine the Trump presidency.

On August 10, 2018, FBI deputy director David Bowdich fired Strzok for the text messages after the FBI’s employee disciplinary office had recommended that Strzok only be suspended for 60 days and demoted. On August 6, 2019, Strzok filed a wrongful termination suit against the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, asking to be reinstated and awarded back pay. He asserted in the suit that his text messages were “protected political speech,” and that the termination violated his First Amendment rights. In September 2020, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published Strzok’s book, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump, which became a New York Times and Washington Post bestseller. Strzok is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University. He also co-hosts a podcast.

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