Peter Strzok fired from FBI after anti-Trump texts, lawyer says

Peter Strzok — the FBI special agent who was heavily criticized by President Trump, the president’s allies and a blistering Justice Department Inspector General report — has officially been fired from the FBI, according to his lawyer. 

Strzok became the face of everything Mr. Trump and his allies viewed as problematic with the FBI, after the revelation that he and onetime fellow FBI agent Lisa Page exchanged anti-Trump text messages. Strzok worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and then special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling and any ties to Trump associates. 

He was removed from the Mueller probe after the messages were discovered, and moved to a different office still within the FBI. Strzok was escorted from FBI headquarters in June, after a DOJ watchdog report was critical of his actions. 

“Late Friday afternoon, the Deputy Director of the FBI overruled the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) and departed from established precedent by firing 21-year FBI veteran Peter Strzok,” Aitan Goelman, attorney for Strzok, said. “In doing so he reversed the decision of the career FBI official responsible for employee discipline who concluded, through an independent review process, that a 60-day suspension and demotion from supervisory duties was the appropriate punishment.”

“The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters,” Goelman continued. 

Mr. Trump has repeatedly blasted Strzok in tweets, pointing to Strzok as a reason to mistrust Mueller’s “rigged witch hunt” investigation. 

“President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it,” the president tweeted in July. “When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!” 

This is a developing story and will be updated.