WASHINGTON (AP) – Two former FBI employees reached a tentative agreement with the Department of Justice to resolve allegations that their privacy was violated when the department leaked it to the media text messages that they had sent to each other that disparaged former President Donald Trump.
The tentative agreement was disclosed in a brief court filing Tuesday that did not reveal any of the terms.
Peter Strzoka former FBI counterintelligence agent who helped lead the department investigation about possible ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was fired in 2018 after anti-Trump text messages came to light. Lisa Page, a former FBI lawyer, voluntarily resigned the same year.
They alleged in federal lawsuits filed in the District of Columbia that the Justice Department violated their privacy rights when authorities in December 2017 shared copies of their communications with reporters — including messages that described Trump as an “idiot” and a “disgusting human”. ” and that called the prospect of a Trump victory “terrifying.”
Strzok also sued the department over his firing, alleging that the FBI bowed to Trump’s “relentless pressure” when it fired him and that his First Amendment rights were violated. These constitutional claims were not resolved by the tentative settlement, according to the court notice.
Trump, who publicly defended Strzok’s firing and accused him of betrayalwas questioned under oath last year as part of lengthy litigation.
The text messages were discovered by the Justice Department inspector general’s office while examining the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State.
Strzok was also one of the lead actors in that investigation and notes in his filing that the inspector general found no evidence that political bias tainted the email investigation. Still, the text messages resulted in Strzok’s removal from the team of special counsels conducting the Trump-Russia investigation and helped fuel Trump’s criticism that the inquiry was a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The inspector general identified numerous flaws with that investigation, but found no evidence that any of these problems could be attributed to partisan bias.
Lawyers for Strzok and Page declined to comment Tuesday night. A Justice Department spokesperson also declined to comment, but the department previously said authorities determined it was permissible to share with the media text messages that were also released to members of Congress.
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