A website aimed at crowdsourcing money to support former FBI special agent Peter Strzok was created Monday, a few days after he was fired from the bureau amid Republican complaints that he sent anti-Trump text messages to a colleague with whom he was having an extramarital affair.
“For the last year, Pete, his work, and his character have been the target of highly politicized attacks, including frequent slanderous statements from President Trump, who actively — and apparently successfully — pressured FBI officials to fire Pete,” the GoFundMe account stated.
“All funds raised on this GoFundMe will be put into a trust dedicated to covering Pete’s hefty — and growing — legal costs and his lost income. The trust is being created and details about its management will be shared here as things progress,” the site said.
Within three hours, more than 600 people had contributed more than $25,000 toward its $150,000 goal.
Strzok was dismissed on Friday by FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich, Strzok’s lawyer Aitan Goelman announced Monday. Strzok’s abrupt departure is at odds with a previous decision by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility that he would only be demoted by supervisory positions and face a 60-day suspension following allegations of misconduct, Goelman said.
Strzok was part of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and possible links between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Kremlin, before joining special counsel Robert Mueller’s federal Russia probe in the summer of 2017.
But he was transferred to a human resources role following a Justice Department inspector general investigation that revealed he sent disparaging texts about President Trump to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was in a relationship. The texts became a focus of Republican-led complaints that the Justice Department and the FBI were biased against the president.
The DOJ’s IG report, however, found no proof over the course of a six-month probe that Strzok’s views influenced internal decision-making processes largely because he never acted alone. Strzok has vehemently pushed back on the allegations.
