The FBI agent who wrote those anti-Trump texts was also key in reopening the Clinton email probe just before the election


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.
-
Bluetoothing: the phenomenon driving HIV spike in Fiji
Under the Radar ‘Blood-swapping’ between drug users fuelling growing health crisis on Pacific island
-
Marisa Silver’s 6 favorite books that capture a lifetime
Feature The author recommends works by John Williams, Ian McEwan, and more
-
Book reviews: ‘We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution’ and ‘Will There Ever Be Another You’
Feature The many attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution and Patricia Lockwood’s struggle with long Covid
-
Court allows Trump’s Texas troops to head to Chicago
Speed Read Trump is ‘using our service members as pawns in his illegal effort to militarize our nation’s cities,’ said Gov. J.B. Pritzker
-
Judge bars Trump’s National Guard moves in Oregon
Speed Read In an emergency hearing, a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland
-
Museum head ousted after Trump sword gift denial
Speed Read Todd Arrington, who led the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, denied the Trump administration a sword from the collection as a gift for King Charles
-
Trump declares ‘armed conflict’ with drug cartels
speed read This provides a legal justification for recent lethal military strikes on three alleged drug trafficking boats
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
Judge rules Trump illegally targeted Gaza protesters
Speed Read The Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for supporting Palestine is deemed illegal
-
Trump: US cities should be military ‘training grounds’
Speed Read In a hastily assembled summit, Trump said he wants the military to fight the ‘enemy within’ the US
-
US government shuts down amid health care standoff
Speed Read Democrats said they won’t vote for a deal that doesn’t renew Affordable Care Act health care subsidies