Former FBI official Peter Strzok was fired in disgrace after concerning anti-Trump messages between himself and FBI lawyer Lisa Page came to light. He is suing, claiming that his privacy was violated and alleging wrongful termination. He is claiming his firing was political and his attorneys deposed the guy who fired him, David Bowdich, who was the deputy director of the FBI. Part of the DOJ response was to attach a draft of the letter for Strzok’s firing to show he wasn’t fired for political reasons.
The letter is a brutal takedown, outlining how bad what Strzok did was and how much it hurt the reputation of the FBI, according to Bowdich.
While there is no doubt your 21 years of service to the organization cannot and should not be erased, it is difficult to fathom the repeated, sustained errors of judgment you made while serving as the lead agent in two of the most high profile investigations in the country.
Those investigations were the Russia collusion probe and the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
As an organization, we are entrusted to investigate high level public officials regardless of party affiliation. If we ourselves show personal bias or demonstrate a lack of objectivity, that trust can be lost. Our ability to be objective, no matter which party, candidate, or officeholder is in power, must be beyond question. Candidates and office holders will come and go, but the FBI must be steadfast in its resolve to find the truth, regardless of our personal leanings or beliefs. Though the Office of the Inspector General found no evidence of bias impacted any of your or the FBI’s investigative actions or decisions, your sustained pattern of bad judgment in the use of an FBI device has called into question for many of the decisions made during both the Clinton e-mail investigation and the initial states of the Russian Collusion investigation. In short, your repeated selfishness has called into question the credibility of the the entire FBI.