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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'Who's Putting These Ideas in His Head?' (Interview with Peter Strzok)(The Atlantic)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/anne-applebaum-interviews-peter-strzok/616003/Fate offered Peter Strzok a place in history that he never sought. The son of an Army officer, Strzok also served in the United States military before joining the FBIs counterintelligence operation in 1996. He excelled at his job: In 2001, he was part of the team that tracked and arrested a network of Russian illegals who had been living in the U.S. for many years under deep cover. But those were not the cases that brought him into the limelight. Notoriety came later, when Strzok, as the bureaus chief of counterespionage, led investigations first into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server and then into Russian interference in the 2016 American election campaign.
Strzok has always argued that he, James Comey, and the rest of the FBI tried, from the beginning, to treat both of these cases apolitically: They were focused on following the law. But after the Department of Justice released some private texts in which he was critical of President Donald Trump, he was accused not just of bias, but of seeking to deliberately discredit the president. Strzok, who also worked on Special Counsel Robert Muellers team in its early months, became a hate figure for everyone who sought to distract the public from the facts about Russias intervention and the Trump teams eager embrace of it. I have devoted my adult life to defending the United States, our Constitution, our government and all our citizens, Strzok writes in the introduction to Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump. I never would have imaginedcould not have imaginedthat the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world, would single me out with repeated attacks of treason, accusing me of plotting a coup against our government.
As I read Strzoks book, I found myself unexpectedly angry, because his narrative exposes an extraordinary failure: Despite multiple investigations by the FBI, Congress, and Muellers team, Americans have still never learned the full story about the Trump campaigns relationship with Russia or Trumps own decades-long financial ties with Russia. Four years have passed since the investigation began. Many people have been convicted of crimes. Nevertheless, portions of reports produced by Mueller, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and others remain redacted. Investigations are allegedly ongoing. Details remain secret. Meanwhile, valuable FBI time and money were spent investigating which email server Hillary Clinton useda question that, as it turned out, had no implications for U.S. security whatsoever.
Strzok himself was not exactly reassuring: He does not believe that Trumps true relationship with Russia was ever revealed, and he now worries that it wont ever be. Its not clear that anyone ever followed up on the leads he had, or completed the counterintelligence investigation he began. He doesnt say this himself, but after speaking with him I began to wonder if this is the real reason the Department of Justice broke with precedent in his case by not just firing a well-respected FBI agent but publicly discrediting him too: Strzok was getting too close to the truth.
This is the first interview he has given since he left the FBI. It has been edited for length and clarity.
*snip*
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'Who's Putting These Ideas in His Head?' (Interview with Peter Strzok)(The Atlantic) (Original Post)
Nevilledog
Sep 2020
OP
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)1. K&R