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.
Bowdich said it was “difficult to imagine another incident like yours which brought so much discredit to the organization.”
In my 23 years in the FBI, I have not seen a more impactful series of missteps which called into question the entire organization and more thoroughly damaged the reputation of the organization. In our role as FBI employees we sometimes make unpopular decisions, but the public should be able to examine our work and not have to question motives.
Bowdich said that Strzok’s actions had resulted in an “extremely damaging impact to the organization, which will take years to overcome.”
As Deputy Assistant Director, you were expected to be a leader who was beyond reproach and set an example for not only our direct subordinates, but others throughout the organization who watched and observed your behaviors and actions. You failed to do so repeatedly and put your own interests [above] the interests of the organization. Though it pains me to do so, it is for this reason that I am dismissing you from the rolls of the FBI.
Now that really lays out some of the harm that Strzok did. Yet the liberal media is still having this guy on to expound as an “expert” on networks like MSNBC, even when he was such a disgrace. Someone also paid money to publish his book despite his actions. This despite the fact that he’s still spreading his ridiculous anti-Trump bile all over Twitter.
The draft letter also shows that at that point, there was still at least one guy in authority who cared about the things that the FBI should care about. Bowdich has since left the FBI and it seems to have gotten much worse, given what the whistleblowers are now telling us about the bias that is plaguing the bureau. Strzok should have been a clarion call. But now it’s clear that the FBI’s problems are widespread and there’s going to have to be a house cleaning if we’re ever going to get an objective law enforcement agency.