Former FBI agent Peter Strzok lost a yearslong lawsuit stemming from text messages he sent criticizing Donald Trump during the president’s first term.
Strzok filed the lawsuit in 2019, alleging the government violated his First Amendment rights with his dismissal.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Strzok had failed to prove the government violated his rights, even after years of testimony from others involved in his 2018 firing.
Jackson emphasized that she was not ruling whether his firing “was the appropriate sanction” for his conduct, but rather on whether it violated his First Amendment rights. She ruled it did not.
Strzok worked for the FBI for more than two decades before his firing. In the old text messages, Strzok speculated with an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, on how the FBI might “stop” Trump from becoming president.
Trump used the messages to discredit the FBI and say that he was subject to a “witch hunt” during the bureau’s investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.
The former FBI agent has denied that his views influenced the carrying out of his duties. An inspector general inquiry of the Russia investigation found no evidence that it was affected by bias.
The Biden administration paid Strzok and Page $1.2 million and $800,000, respectively, to settle a separate privacy invasion claim. Strzok’s claims about his firing were not related to the settlement.
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FBI Director Kash Patel was asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) about who authorized the payments, but he said the agreements were “reached in the Biden administration when my predecessor was director.”
Going forward, Strzok may appeal Jackson’s decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit if he chooses to.