‘I can tell you, in my opinion, these are the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I’ve ever seen…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) Disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok said he is ready to respond to President Donald Trump’s “attacks” after the president mocked him and his former paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, during his post-acquittal celebration this week.
2/2 I will have a great deal more to say about the president’s attacks on those with responsibility for holding him accountable.
America deserves better. https://t.co/ywx5R07fOi
— Peter Strzok (@petestrzok) February 7, 2020
Trump blasted the FBI for attempting to derail his presidency. He specifically criticized “sleazebag” former FBI Director James Comey, as well as Strzok and Page, whom Trump called “lowlifes.”
“I can tell you, in my opinion, these are the crookedest, most dishonest, dirtiest people I’ve ever seen,” Trump said on Thursday, reading from a transcription of text messages exchanged between “the FBI lovebirds.”
“They said—this is Strzok: ‘God, Hillary should win 100 million to one.’ This is about me,” Trump said. “This is an agent from the FBI.”
He continued by railing at the hypocritical double standard that Democrats had applied to Hillary Clinton’s criminal conduct, which involved the wiping of servers and the destruction of government-issued devices that contained classified government emails subpoenaed by Congress.
“Look how they let her off,” Trump said. “Thirty-three thousand emails deleted. Nothing happens to her. Nothing happens. It’s unbelievable.”
Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman, responded by claiming there had been a “betrayal of our national security” from the president’s comments.
Angered by the disclosures of yet more instances of his betrayal of our national security in the service of his own political advantage, President Trump raged and threatened those public servants tasked with investigating or testifying about his serial misconduct.
— AITAN GOELMAN (@AitanGoelman) February 6, 2020
Goelman followed up on Friday by falsely claiming that the previously released reports had “vindicated” Strzok. However, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the opposite while testifying before the Senate in December.
“Peter Strzok, a patriotic career counterintelligence agent whose conduct in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has been vindicated by two independent IG investigations, today found himself targeted by his President in yet another unhinged attack,” Goelman said.
Page has not yet responded to Trump’s comments, but she has accused the Justice Department of “betraying” her and Strzok.
“I mean, it’s, it’s really one of the more painful aspects of this entire two years,” Page told MSNBC late last year. “I mean, the president’s attacks and assaults are one thing but this is my institution, this is my Justice Department betraying us.”