FBI fires Peter Strzok, political lightning rod who criticized Trump

The FBI has fired an embattled special agent who was removed from the Russia inquiry after internal investigators discovered he had criticized then-candidate Donald Trump in text messages exchanged with another bureau official.

Peter Strzok had remained on the FBI payroll until his employment finally was terminated on Friday, his attorney said on Monday morning.

The bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility had recommended that Strzok be reprimanded with a demotion and 60-day suspension but the office of Deputy FBI Director David Bowdich decided instead that Strzok should be fired altogether.

The FBI made no immediate comment about the news on Monday morning.

Strzok’s attorneys called his dismissal “not only a departure from typical bureau practice,” but a decision that contradicted earlier commitments by FBI Director Christopher Wray to follow standard process in dealing with its personnel matters.

Strzok has been the target of months of attacks by President Trump and his supporters over the text messages, which Strzok exchanged on his official government mobile phone with FBI attorney Lisa Page. The two were having an extramarital affair and used their work devices to conceal that from their spouses, they’ve acknowledged.

Trump and his Republican allies — particularly in the House of Representatives — argue Strzok and Page embody what they call the “bias” within the FBI and Justice Department that is really at the heart of the department’s Russia investigation, which in Trump’s construction is a “witch hunt” out to frame him.

Strzok acknowledged to the House Judiciary Committee that he had exchanged all the messages with Page that had been discovered by Justice Department investigators but said the First Amendment protected his right to hold those views and denied he had ever let his beliefs affect any of his official actions.

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