Two former FBI officials who exchanged anti-Trump texts set to be settled for alleged privacy violations

US News

By Associated Press

Two former FBI officials have reached a tentative agreement with the Justice Department to resolve allegations that their privacy was violated when the department leaked to the media text messages they sent to each other that disparaged the former President Donald Trump.

The tentative agreement was disclosed in a brief court filing Tuesday that revealed none of the terms.

Peter Strzok, a former FBI counterintelligence agent who helped lead the bureau's investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was fired in 2018 after anti-intelligence text messages were revealed. -Trump.

Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer, voluntarily resigned that same year.

They alleged in federal lawsuits filed in the District of Columbia that the Justice Department violated their privacy rights when officials in December 2017 shared copies of their communications with reporters — including messages describing Trump as an “idiot” and a “disgusting human.” » and who described the prospect of a Trump victory as “terrifying”.

Strzok also sued the department over his firing, alleging that the FBI gave in to Trump's “relentless pressure” when it fired him and that his First Amendment rights were violated.

These constitutional claims were not resolved by the interim settlement, according to the court's opinion.

Trump, who publicly supported Strzok's firing and accused him of treason, was questioned under oath last year in the long-running dispute.

The text messages were discovered by the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General as it reviewed the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state .

Strzok was also a lead agent in that investigation, and he notes in his lawsuit that the inspector general found no evidence that political bias tainted the email investigation.

Despite this, the text messages led to Strzok's removal from the special counsel team handling the Trump-Russia investigation and helped fuel Trump's criticism that the investigation was a politically motivated “witch hunt.” .

The inspector general identified numerous flaws in this investigation, but found no evidence that any of these problems could be attributed to partisan bias.

Lawyers for Strzok and Page declined to comment Tuesday evening.

A Justice Department spokesperson also declined to comment, but the department previously said officials determined it was permissible to share with the media text messages that had also been leaked to members of Congress.