WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former FBI officials have reached a tentative settlement with the Justice Department to resolve claims that their privacy was violated when the department leaked to the news media text messages they sent to each other that the former discredited President Donald Trump.
The tentative deal was announced Tuesday in a brief court filing that did not reveal any terms.
Peter Strzok, a former top FBI counterintelligence agent who helped lead the agency’s investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was fired in 2018 after the anti-Trump text messages came to light came. Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer, voluntarily resigned that same year.
They alleged in federal lawsuits filed in the District of Columbia that the Justice Department infringed on their privacy rights when officials shared copies of their communications with reporters in December 2017 — including messages describing Trump as an “idiot” and a ‘disgusting human being’. ‘ and called the prospect of a Trump victory ‘terrifying’.
Strzok also sued the department over his firing, claiming the FBI caved to “relentless pressure” from Trump when he fired him and that his First Amendment rights were violated. According to the court’s notice, these constitutional claims are not resolved by the preliminary settlement.
Trump, who publicly supported Strzok’s firing and accused him of treason, was questioned under oath last year as part of the long-running lawsuit.
The text messages were discovered by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General as it investigated the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Strzok was also a lead agent in that investigation, and he notes in his lawsuit that the inspector general found no evidence that political bias tainted the email investigation. Still, the text messages led to Strzok’s removal from the special counsel team conducting the Trump-Russia investigation and helped fuel Trump’s criticism that the investigation was a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The inspector general identified numerous deficiencies in that investigation but found no evidence that those problems could be attributed to partisan bias.
Attorneys for Strzok and Page declined to comment Tuesday evening. A Justice Department spokesperson also declined to comment, but the department has previously said officials have determined it is permissible to share text messages with the media that were also disclosed to members of Congress.
