Two former FBI employees have reached a tentative settlement with the Justice Department to resolve allegations that their privacy was violated when the department leaked to the press text messages they had sent to each other disparagingly about former President Donald Trump.
The tentative agreement was disclosed in a brief court document filed Tuesday, but no terms were disclosed.
Peter Strzok was the former FBI’s top counterintelligence agent who led the agency’s investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential election, but was fired in 2018 after anti-Trump text messages came to light.
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page voluntarily resigned from her position that same year.
In a federal lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia, the couple allege that their privacy rights were violated when Justice Department officials shared copies of their conversations with reporters in December 2017, including messages describing Trump as an “idiot” and an “abominable human being” and calling the possibility of his victory “frightening.”
Strzok also filed a lawsuit against the FBI over his firing, alleging that the bureau bowed to “relentless pressure” from President Trump in firing him and violated his First Amendment rights.
Those constitutional claims are not resolved in the tentative settlement, according to the court’s notice.
Trump, who openly supported Strzok’s removal from office and accused him of treason, was questioned by sworn deposition last year as part of the long-running legal case.
The text messages were discovered by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General, which was reviewing an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State.
Strzok also served as lead investigator on that investigation, and he said in the complaint that the inspector general found no evidence that political bias influenced the email investigation.
Still, the text messages led to Strzok being removed from the special counsel team investigating Trump-Russia ties, fuelling Trump’s criticism that the investigation is a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
The inspector general found numerous deficiencies in the investigation but found no evidence that those problems stemmed from partisan bias.
Attorneys for Strzok and Page declined to comment Tuesday night.
A Justice Department spokesman also declined to comment, but the department has previously said officials had determined it was permissible to share with the media the text messages that were also disclosed to members of Congress.
