Peter Strzok
Peter Paul Strzok II is an American former Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent who rose to deputy assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division after joining the agency in 1996 and serving for 22 years until his firing in 2018.[1][2] During his tenure, Strzok led the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and initiated Crossfire Hurricane, the probe into alleged coordination between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russian interference in the U.S. election.[3] His career concluded amid revelations of private text messages exchanged with FBI lawyer Lisa Page expressing overt political bias against Donald Trump—including a message stating "[No]. No. No he's not [president]. We'll stop it"—which the Department of Justice Inspector General determined created serious doubt about Strzok's capacity for impartiality in handling politically charged investigations, despite finding no documentary proof that this animus directly altered specific decisions. Strzok was removed from Robert Mueller's special counsel team in 2017, reassigned to human resources, and terminated for violations of FBI policies on media contacts and personal conduct, a decision he contested in a lawsuit alleging political retaliation that was ultimately dismissed in 2025.[4][5][6] Post-FBI, Strzok published the memoir Compromised defending the Russia investigation's origins and legitimacy, and he currently serves as an adjunct professor of counterintelligence at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.[3][7]