Peter Paul Strzok II (/strʌk/, like struck; born March 7, 1970)[1] is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent.

[8][4][9] In June and July 2017, Strzok worked on Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation into any links or coordination between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government.

[17] In September 2020, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published Strzok's book, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump,[18] which became a New York Times and Washington Post bestseller.

[42] In July 2017, Strzok became the most senior FBI agent working for Robert Mueller's 2017 Special Counsel investigation looking into any links or coordination between Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government.

[11][45][46][47][48] According to The New York Times, Strzok was "considered one of the most experienced and trusted FBI counterintelligence investigators,"[30] as well as "one of the Bureau's top experts on Russia" according to CNN.

[52] On August 10, 2018, under intense political pressure from Trump and Republicans in Congress following the IG report, FBI deputy director David Bowdich fired Strzok.

[57] The IG's investigation examined thousands of text messages exchanged using FBI-issued cell phones between Strzok and Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extramarital affair.

[59][60][67] In their messages, Strzok and Page also advocated creating a Special Counsel to investigate the Hillary Clinton email controversy, and discussed suggesting former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald be considered for such a probe.

[68] Devlin Barrett from The Washington Post alleged Strzok and Page had been using the backdrop of discussing the Clinton investigation as a cover for their personal communications during an affair.

Former FBI and DOJ officials told The Hill that it was not uncommon for agents like Strzok to hold political opinions and still conduct an impartial investigation.

[76] The Office of Inspector General's report on the FBI's handling of the Clinton email investigation published on June 14, 2018, criticized Strzok's text messages for creating the appearance of impropriety.

[80][81] Strzok's personal messages to Lisa Page have been used by Republicans to attack the impartiality of Mueller's investigation into Donald Trump's alleged collusion with Russia during the election.

Conservative media outlets and Republicans have used the text messages as part of an aggressive campaign to discredit the Mueller investigation and protect President Trump.

[85][86][87][88][89] Fox Business host Lou Dobbs said that the FBI and DOJ were working clandestinely to destroy the Trump presidency, and called for a "war" against the "deep state".

[91] Fox News figures referred to the investigation as "corrupt", "crooked" and "illegitimate", and likened the FBI's tactics to the KGB, the Soviet-era spy organization.

[85] In an August 15, 2016 text message, Strzok told Page: "I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy's (Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI) office that there's no way Trump gets elected—but I'm afraid we can't take that risk.

"[92][93] On January 20, 2018, Senator Ron Johnson (R–WI) released a letter in which he stated that the FBI's technical system had failed to preserve five months' worth of texts between Strzok and Page.

[94] A Justice Department official later said that the technical lapse had affected thousands of FBI-issued phones, which failed to store text messages for periods of up to a year.

[97] In February 2018, Johnson speculated that a text message between Strzok and Page raised questions about "the type and extent of President Obama's personal involvement" in the Clinton emails investigation.

[98] Fox News reiterated Johnson's claim that text messages between Strzok and Page suggested that former President Barack Obama was deeply involved in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

[99] Johnson's claim was covered by various then pro-Trump websites, such as Drudge Report, Breitbart, InfoWars and The Gateway Pundit, before President Trump himself tweeted "NEW FBI TEXTS ARE BOMBSHELLS!

"[99] Other news outlets reported that the text messages were sent in September 2016, months after the Clinton emails investigation had concluded, and three days before Obama would confront Russian President Vladimir Putin about interference in the 2016 election at the G20 Hangzhou summit.

[99] Strzok filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the DOJ and the FBI in federal court on August 6, 2019, asking to be reinstated and awarded back pay.

[17] In February 2023, federal judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Trump and FBI director Christopher Wray could be questioned under oath regarding the suit.

[104] In September 2020, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published Strzok's book, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump,[18] which became a New York Times and Washington Post bestseller.