Peter Strzok sues over firing for anti-Trump texts

[Mrs. Overall]

Source: Politico

The former FBI agent who opened the bureau’s Russia probe says the government violated his First and Fifth Amendment rights.

Peter Strzok, the former FBI agent who opened the bureau’s Russia probe in 2016 and later became a symbol of alleged “deep state” animus for Donald Trump, is suing the government over his firing.

In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Strzok excoriates the Justice Department and FBI for their handling of his dismissal over a trove of text messages he wrote to a colleague that were critical of Trump. Strzok accuses the president of inappropriately bullying law enforcement officials deciding his fate, raises questions about why his texts were leaked to the media and lambastes the administration for only defending its employees’ free speech rights when they are praising Trump.

Specifically, Strzok’s lawsuit accuses the agencies of violating his First and Fifth Amendment rights by firing him over the texts and then depriving him of due process to challenge his expulsion. And, Strzok argues, DOJ’s decision to give the incendiary messages to reporters before handing them to Congress — generating blaring headlines — was “deliberate and unlawful,” a violation of the Privacy Act. The Justice Department and FBI did not immediately comment.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/06/peter-strzok-lawsuit-firing-trump-texts-1448615

[hlthe2b]

1. Good. I wish him success.

[cstanleytech]

2. I just wish Trump could be personally sued for it.

[KPN]

4. Ditto.

[certainot]

30. speaking of ditto... he should sue limbuagh too, for lying regularly about his part in the

'deep state coup' for almost 2 years, until half the country believed it

[Bluepinky]

32. Sue Limbaugh and Hannity for slander.

[certainot]

34. hannity is the guy redacted in the mueller report glossary btwn GRaf and HAWker. why?

he was mentioned 5 times in the report and then they redact his name and all description for Harm To Ongoing Matter..... he was supposed to be there and they could have redacted part of the description after the name , like all the rest like that, but they actually redacted his name too.

who else would be there? if there wasn't more investigation going on they're just treat it like the rest and include his name and redact part or all of his description. why redact a name that anyone could figure out was hannity? were the redactors working for mueller sending a message for dem investigators and media to follow? he's mentioned 5 times, there's no reason not to put him there in that slot.

[Bluepinky]

35. Can't stand Limbaugh and Hannity. Bet they both are on the Russian payroll.

Not surprised if both of them are traitors to our country, along with Trump.

[stopdiggin]

12. wish him luck too

My guess is a successful outcome in court is probably a slim chance (your 1st rights while at work are pretty limited. due process, maybe slightly better, but also darn hard to win) But I applaud the fact that he is going for a PUBLIC hearing on the issues. Get some facts into the record for future reference. And we need this kind of paper trail for what's going down with Justice and FBI these days. Good luck!

[exboyfil]

3. Could discovery include combing through other FBI

agents emails and possibly showing animus towards Hillary Clinton as well?

Could be firing a whole bunch of FBI agents.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. Interesting question.

[stopdiggin]

13. Nah, not going to fire anyone. but it sure would be entertaining! (nt)

[NewJeffCT]

14. I'm betting

that there were a lot of those, especially Rudy's FBI friends in NYC

[Karadeniz]

27. He and his girlfriend criticized Bernie and Hillary also, but they were most worried about

Trump.

[thenelm1]

33. That's sorta what I remember of these guys too.

As I recall, they were equally critical of all the major presidential candidates in 2016 - but the only msgs that got publicized, and the only person butt-hurt about it was Trump. Somehow, over time, the bit of them being critical of Clinton, Trump and Sanders got forgotten by the press. Surprise, surprise.

[certainot]

36. rw media used it like they wanted - cherrypicking and determining priority and perspective for

tens of millions because they have 1500 rw radio stations they can coordinate as they want

limbugh attacked them and determined/created strzok's part in the 'deep state' coup with 2 years of unchallenged repetition.

[BlueIdaho]

5. Give Them Hell Peter!

Trump doesn’t give a shit about due process - but the DOJ has no fucking excuse whatsoever.

[cp]

7. I admire Strzok

We lost one of our best Russia experts with his firing.

[kag]

19. I do too.

I think he was probably kind of a shit, cheating on his wife and all, but he was an excellent g-man. Rachel did a great job of describing his career in an episode many months ago.

[Me.]

8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Fighting Back

[poli-junkie]

9. Andrew McCabe should follow Strzok's lead. nt

[NewJeffCT]

15. was he the guy fired a day before he was pension eligible

or something like that? Or, eligible for the next level of pension?

I think he already filed a lawsuit if that's the case.

[kag]

17. Yes, that was McCabe.

He was acting director of the FBI at the time, and Trump had him fired the day before he qualified for his twenty(?) year pension.

[mr_lebowski]

42. I remember he was on a long vacation before that happened ...

Presumably someone else was acting as Director during that time but I don't remember for sure.

But yeah shitheel Trump did exactly that ... asshole that he is.

[ScratchCat]

10. Leaking his emails to the media

was the big mistake. A good friend of mine noted that was likely illegal back when it happened.

[Backseat Driver]

11. OK then but Ms Paige was much more than his colleague, a

situation often cited as a set up for compromising blackmail, and their amusements via the in-box would be widely held as unprofessional. There is the deprivation of due process to challenge one's accusers, though, and failure to keep sensitive "personnel issues" from leaking. For what it's worth, been on that deprivation of due process ride in a far different situation, I think. That local govenment was a testing site for integrating new software, PROMIS. The hope of a case ended poorly and without the legal support for representation sought.

[stopdiggin]

18. quite true, but

their amusements via the in-box would be widely held as unprofessional.

Quite true, but the consequences in ordinary circumstances probably would have amounted to reprimand (and perhaps some reassignment, shifting of cases/duties). The consequences as they played out here were clearly the result of a political purge played out at the behest of an Executive bent on obstruction.

[bucolic_frolic]

16. If there really were a Deep State

Trump would never have "won" the election. Everyone knew he was wacko unqualified.

Strzok has legitimate claims there, in my view. It really is possible to have points of view that one sets aside to perform an excellent career at a very high level, to be impartial, to apply policies and laws and rules that contradict with one's beliefs or conscience, simply because that is what the job requires - to act with integrity in a lawful manner.

To view everyone as a partisan hack is to admit the hackery of your own side. Nothing but respect for the impartial rule of law and the apparatus - federal, state, and local - who carry it out.

[tblue37]

20. Good. nt

[in2herbs]

21. Good. Keep picking at the scab. nt

[Wounded Bear]

22. Weren't there emails that criticized other candidates as well?

Seems something like that would be indicative of bias in the action by the department.

[H2O Man]

28. Yes.

[Pepsidog]

23. Good for him. Terrible how the traitor ruined so many reputations of good people.

[SunSeeker]

24. Good, hope he wins his suit. nt

[Ponietz]

25. I hope he wins but a 'counterintelligence' officer who uses a work phone for personal reasons

isn’t thinking clearly and sets himself up. The FBI really failed the American people.

[mr_lebowski]

43. Not so sure on that one ... I'd not be surprised if high-level FBI people aren't discouraged from

even owning 'personal phones' due to the risk of hacking.

It'd certainly seem smarter to conduct discussions re: your whereabouts and cases and such on maximum security lines not a personal phone.

On top of that, I've seen lots of transcripts of their calls and the large majority are work-related. The smack-talk about Trump was even work-related, it was partly his job to (decide to) investigate, and she's also a DoJ employee with appropriate clearance to partake in such discussions. It's very arguably NOT a 'personal reason'.

I'm not so sure anything he did positively violated FBI policy, & frankly I think if it did, he wouldn't be bothering to sue.

[Ponietz]

44. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and the pig looks passable with lipstick

but I’m not persuaded. Strzok also had a personal phone. His personal political opinions were sent on an FBI phone in order to conceal an affair with Page. He set himself up. He didn’t deserve termination, though.

Trump is in power and FBI officials look like fools. Bad judgment from Comey down, failing to take the threat seriously and act decisively. Worse—actively assisting in throwing the election, as did Comey.

[Gothmog]

26. This will be fun to watch

[flying_wahini]

29. Bravo!

[Ilsa]

31. I hope he wins big time.

Along with McCabe.

[Linda Ed]

37. Best of Luck

Best of Luck, Peter. You were unfairly targeted by petty, uninformed people.

[oasis]

38. Go get 'em Pete!

[Cicada]

39. Strzok caught more Russian spies than anyone else ever

He is a genuine hero. Among his other cases he was part of the team that caught the Americans, ten sleepers including the glamorous Anna Chapman. The wonderful TV show the Americans was loosely based on that group. The leaks were mischaracterized to smear him. He will never be President. We will stop him. He meant we the voters would not elect him. Insurance policy? He was arguing the investigation should move forward soon rather than more leisurely, even tho Trump wouldn’t win. He said young fathers buy life insurance even tho the odds of them dying young were small. So let’s investigate fast as insurance against the unlikely event of a Trump victory. Because after a Trump victory the evidence would disappear, maybe.

[oldsoftie]

40. Doubt that this will go anywhere. The reality is that he COULD be fired.

But hey, we'll see

[Progressive dog]

41. Good

Trump and his minions must be stopped in the courts and then in the voting. Then it's time for the grand juries.