Former FBI agent Pete Strzok, who was fired from the bureau in 2018 after his derogatory text messages about Donald Trump were made public, has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over his allegations that his privacy rights were violated, his lawyers said.
According to Strzok’s lawyers, the U.S. government has agreed to pay him $1.2 million.
In his 2019 lawsuit, Strzok and his lawyers argued that the FBI and DOJ illegally disclosed his private text messages denigrating Trump before and after the 2016 presidential election — including the period during which Strzok helped lead the agency’s investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump, who has made Strzok a frequent target on social media, has argued that Strzok’s political bias tainted the early stages of the Russia investigation.
FBI Deputy Director Peter Strzok testifies before a joint committee of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 12, 2018.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
When the Justice Department’s inspector general discovered the text messages between Strzok and then-FBI attorney Lisa Page, Strzok was removed by Robert Mueller from the special counsel’s office to a lower-level human resources position before his eventual termination from the bureau.
“The FBI fired Special Agent Strzok because of his protected political speech, in violation of his rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the lawsuit argued.
