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 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.