Former Anti-Trump FBI Agent Peter Strzok Suing DOJ For Violating His Rights

Politico has more details on the lawsuit:

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. 

Strzok became a lightning rod for efforts to undermine the Russia investigation when the texts he wrote to FBI lawyer Lisa Page — using his FBI-issued phone — were publicly released in December 2017. 

DOJ has not disclosed who authorized the release of the text messages, which were under investigation at the time by Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Strzok’s legal team said in the filing that it hopes to learn that in discovery.

The Los Angeles Times also said:

A veteran FBI agent who wrote derogatory text messages about President Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday charging that the bureau caved to “unrelenting pressure” from the president when it fired him.

The suit from Peter Strzok also alleges he was unfairly punished for expressing his political opinions, and that the Justice Department violated his privacy when it shared hundreds of his text messages with reporters.

“The campaign to publicly vilify Special Agent Strzok contributed to the FBI’s ultimate decision to unlawfully terminate him,” the lawsuit says, “as well as to frequent incidents of public and online harassment and threats of violence to Strzok and his family that began when the texts were first disclosed to the media and continue to this day.”

The complaint, which names as defendants Atty. Gen. William Barr and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, revisits a political drama that was seized on by conservative critics of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation as proof that the bureau was biased against Trump. Multiple investigations are underway examining whether the FBI acted properly during the Russia investigation, and Strzok remains a target of Trump’s scornful tweets.

The lawsuit seeks reinstatement to the FBI, back pay and a declaration that the government violated his rights.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment, and representatives of the FBI did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

The suit provides new details about the circumstances of Strzok’s firing and amounts to the latest defense of his reputation, coming months after a fiery congressional hearing in which he insisted that his personal views never influenced his work.

Strzok, a veteran counterintelligence agent who helped lead FBI investigations into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, was removed from Mueller’s team after the texts with FBI lawyer Lisa Page came to light. He was fired from the FBI last August.