Two former FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, settled their lawsuits with the Justice Department on Friday, addressing claims that their privacy rights were violated when their text messages disparaging former President Donald Trump were leaked to the media.
Peter Strzok, a former top counterintelligence agent who played a pivotal role in the 2016 investigation into Russian election interference, settled his case for $1.2 million. Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer who exchanged the text messages with Strzok, settled her case for $800,000, according to court records reviewed by The Associated Press.
The lawsuits stemmed from a 2017 incident in which Justice Department officials shared copies of their text messages with reporters. The messages included derogatory comments about Trump, calling him an “idiot” and a “loathsome human,” and expressing fear about the possibility of his election victory. Following the leak, Strzok, who also investigated Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, was fired, while Page resigned. Both sued, claiming the leaks were intended to falsely portray anti-Trump bias within the FBI and to bolster the department’s standing with Trump amid his attacks on then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Inspector General reports on the Clinton email and Trump-Russia investigations found no evidence that partisan bias influenced FBI decisions.
Strzok has an ongoing lawsuit against the department over his termination, alleging that the FBI succumbed to “unrelenting pressure” from Trump and violated his First Amendment rights. These constitutional claims remain unresolved.
“This outcome is a critical step forward in addressing the government’s unfair and highly politicized treatment of Pete,” Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement. “It also vindicates the privacy interests of all government employees. We will continue to litigate Pete’s constitutional claims to ensure that, in the future, public servants are protected from adverse employment actions motivated by partisan politics.”
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
“While I have been vindicated by this result, my fervent hope remains that our institutions of justice will never again play politics with the lives of their employees,” Page said in a statement. Her attorneys added that the release of the text messages in December 2017 was for partisan political purposes and against the law.
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