The FBI agent who wrote those anti-Trump texts was also key in reopening the Clinton email probe just before the election
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
An FBI employee accused of harboring bias against President Trump played a pivotal role in reviving the bureau's investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails, CNN reported Wednesday. Agent Peter Strzok reportedly helped draft the letter that former FBI Director James Comey sent to Congress in October 2016, announcing the FBI was reopening its probe into Clinton's private email server. Comey's letter has been cited by some analysts — as well as by Clinton herself — as being instrumental to her loss to Donald Trump in the election.
The new report on Strzok's role in the Clinton investigation complicates the narrative pushed by President Trump and several prominent Republicans that Strzok was proof of bias against the president within the FBI. Strzok was originally staffed on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling, but was removed from the probe after Mueller was made aware of texts he'd sent disparaging Trump.
CNN's report shows that Strzok supported making the decision that may have swung the 2016 election in Trump's favor. He additionally wrote in text messages to another FBI agent, with whom he was conducting an extramarital affair, that he was in favor of reopening the probe — though he reportedly noted that he was worried about "the fallout of making the letter public."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The renewed Clinton email probe ultimately yielded no new information or proof of wrongdoing, and Comey closed the investigation again just days later. Read more about Strzok and the Clinton email investigation at CNN.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.
-
Quiz of The Week: 14 – 20 FebruaryQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
The Week Unwrapped: Do the Freemasons have too much sway in the police force?Podcast Plus, what does the growing popularity of prediction markets mean for the future? And why are UK film and TV workers struggling?
-
Properties of the week: pretty thatched cottagesThe Week Recommends Featuring homes in West Sussex, Dorset and Suffolk
-
NIH director Bhattacharya tapped as acting CDC headSpeed Read Jay Bhattacharya, a critic of the CDC’s Covid-19 response, will now lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-
Witkoff and Kushner tackle Ukraine, Iran in GenevaSpeed Read Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held negotiations aimed at securing a nuclear deal with Iran and an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine
-
Pentagon spokesperson forced out as DHS’s resignsSpeed Read Senior military adviser Col. David Butler was fired by Pete Hegseth and Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin is resigning
-
Judge orders Washington slavery exhibit restoredSpeed Read The Trump administration took down displays about slavery at the President’s House Site in Philadelphia
-
Hyatt chair joins growing list of Epstein files losersSpeed Read Thomas Pritzker stepped down as executive chair of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation over his ties with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
-
Judge blocks Hegseth from punishing Kelly over videoSpeed Read Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed for the senator to be demoted over a video in which he reminds military officials they should refuse illegal orders
-
Trump’s EPA kills legal basis for federal climate policySpeed Read The government’s authority to regulate several planet-warming pollutants has been repealed
-
House votes to end Trump’s Canada tariffsSpeed Read Six Republicans joined with Democrats to repeal the president’s tariffs
