Traitor or Hero<\/p>\n
I spent yesterday with Peter Strzok and Members of Congress.\u00a0 Yes, I did clean the awning on the camper, buy parts for my Jeep, and run some errands; but I watched or listened to Strzok\u2019s questioning through most of ten hours.\u00a0 The neighborhood got to listen too.<\/p>\n
What was the result of all of the questioning, showboating, insults, and posturing? \u00a0Either Strzok is a traitor, attempting to stage a coup to prevent Donald Trump from becoming President, or Strzok is a flawed hero, fighting to prevent Russian influence in our elections.\u00a0 There isn\u2019t really any middle ground.<\/p>\n
Peter Strzok was FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Counter-Intelligence.\u00a0 To use intelligence specialist Malcolm Nance\u2019s description:\u00a0 \u201cStrzok was our foremost spy-catcher.\u201d\u00a0 For those who watched the series \u201cThe Americans,\u201d Strzok led the FBI investigation that broke that Russian spy ring.\u00a0 He was the front line leader of the investigation into Hillary Clinton\u2019s email server, and, when information was found showing Russian intervention in the 2016 Presidential election, he led that as well.<\/p>\n
It might seem like a lot of responsibility for one man, but as Strzok said yesterday, he had hundreds of counter-intelligence cases on his desk, and he was managing multiple levels of the agency in dealing with them.\u00a0 He was one of our best.<\/p>\n
And clearly, Strzok was a man of strong political views.\u00a0 We know that because he was having an affair with Lisa Page, a Department of Justice attorney working on some of the same cases.\u00a0 Since they were both married to others, they kept their communication secret by using their DOJ phones to talk.\u00a0 Oh, and they sent texts, thousands and thousands of texts.<\/p>\n
In those texts were insults towards Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, but the worst were directed toward Donald Trump.\u00a0 And some of those texts made it sound like Strzok could actually do something to alter the election results.<\/p>\n
In looking back at my texts the months before the election, it is very possible that I would have sent a text that said:\u00a0 \u201cwe can stop Trump,\u201d or \u201cwhat are you doing to stop Trump.\u201d\u00a0In context it would be about going door to door for Clinton, but out of context, what could it sound like?<\/em><\/p>\n Strzok took the \u201ctraitor\u201d scenario apart with a simple fact:\u00a0 if he wanted to stop the Trump candidacy, he could have leaked the fact of the investigation to the media before the election.\u00a0 What happened to Clinton, with the final Comey letter killing the momentum of her campaign in the last ten days, could have happened to Trump.\u00a0 Strzok didn\u2019t do that, he said it never crossed his mind.<\/p>\n Strzok and Page not only cheated on their spouses, but they left a record that became public.\u00a0 It was a stupid mistake by smart people.\u00a0 It has opened the door for the Republican House Members to make Strzok the b\u00eate noire who started the Russia investigation out of his animus for Trump.\u00a0 Their argument returns to the \u201cfruit of the poisonous tree\u201d defense:\u00a0 that since Strzok started the investigation out of \u201cbias,\u201d then the entire effort is illegitimate.<\/p>\n Strzok responded by admitting the obvious:\u00a0 he didn\u2019t want Donald Trump to become President.\u00a0 He then stated, that he did what we hope every FBI Agent can do, leave their personal bias at the door, and go into the office and do their job without fear or favor.\u00a0 After ten hours of testimony, most Republicans didn\u2019t believe him, and most Democrats did.<\/p>\n IF, for a moment, we can take Strzok at his word, then what would this investigation look like?\u00a0 FBI and DOJ procedures call for investigations to be secret until final.\u00a0 This way the prosecutors can get evidence without \u201ctainting\u201d it with media attention, and the innocent don\u2019t get their reputations smeared.\u00a0 When the prosecutors bring their case, they do it in the court, not in the media.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what happened with the Clinton email server investigation.\u00a0 As one Democratic Congresswoman said, the FBI didn\u2019t leak the Trump investigation, but they were so afraid of leaks that they cost Hillary the election.<\/p>\n But so far the Mueller investigation is doing exactly that.\u00a0 There hasn\u2019t been a leak; the only information from Mueller has been in Court documents.\u00a0 Leaks and rumors about what Mueller is doing comes mostly from defense attorneys, or speculation in the media.\u00a0 The Republican claim that there \u201c\u2026is no evidence…\u201d is mostly true \u2013 Mueller is holding the evidence until he is ready to go to Court.\u00a0 Just like we should expect him to do.<\/p>\n So what about Peter Strzok?\u00a0He made a huge mistake.\u00a0 But he came across as a dedicated agent, who stood between America and our enemies.\u00a0 His mistake cost him his career, but the loss is both his and ours.<\/p>\n