The Biden Administration has settled with two fired FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, over privacy violations linked to their anti-Trump texts, awarding them $2 million combined.
The Biden Administration has reached a settlement with two former FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were fired over anti-Trump text messages. The settlement addresses violations of their privacy rights.
Strzok, a former counterintelligence agent, and Page, an FBI lawyer, filed lawsuits against the Justice Department for releasing their text conversations expressing contempt for former President Donald Trump.
Court documents reveal that Strzok settled for $1.2 million, while Page received $800,000.
Strzok was dismissed in 2018 for his anti-Trump texts. In 2019, he argued in a Washington, D.C., federal district court filing that his politically charged messages were protected by the First Amendment, even though they were sent on bureau-issued phones while he played key roles in probes into both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
Strzok, once the FBI's head of counterintelligence, maintained he was entitled to "develop a full factual record through discovery" and that dismissing the case prematurely would leave "thousands of career federal government employees without protections from discipline over the content of their political speech."
"This outcome is a critical step forward in addressing the government’s unfair and highly politicized treatment of Pete," said Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan Goelman. "As important as it is for him, it also vindicates the privacy interests of all government employees. We will continue to litigate Pete’s constitutional claims to ensure that, in the future, public servants are protected from adverse employment actions motivated by partisan politics."
Lisa Page, who was also dismissed, sued the FBI and the Department of Justice, alleging that the government's publication of her text messages with Strzok breached the Federal Privacy Act.
.png)
Komentáře