After being exposed by Donald Trump‘s Justice Department for their part in the Russiagate smear of the former president, former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page will now receive massive payouts from the Biden Justice Department.
The two agents, whose communications about Trump on their government phones were revealed as part of the investigation into the debunked Russia hoax, will split a $2 million payday.
Strzok will get $1.2 million, and Page will receive $800,000, Politico reported.
“This outcome is a critical step forward in addressing the government’s unfair and highly politicized treatment of Pete,” said Aitan Goelman, Strzok’s lawyer.
“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,” he said.
“The evidence was overwhelming that the release of text messages to the press in December 2017 was for partisan political purposes and was against the law,” said Amy Jeffress, who represented Page.
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the messages public and handed them over to the media.
“The disclosure obviously would adversely affect public confidence in the FBI, but providing the most egregious messages in one package would avoid the additional harm of prolonged selective disclosures and minimize the appearance of the Department concealing information that was embarrassing to the FBI,” Rosenstein has said.
Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the pair to House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Politico noted.
“So, you can go after a president, and you get rewarded for doing so, according to the Justice Department?” Jordan asked.
“It’s not a question of reward. It’s a question of the government paying for violating the law,” Garland replied.
That was different from how the New York Post editorial board saw the payments.
“Congratulations, U.S. taxpayers: You get to pay Peter Strzok and Lisa Page $2 million,” a Post editorial said.
The editorial said Page and Strzok “played politics on the job and got burned for it.”
The editorial said, “But the folks now running Justice share those politics and are taking care of them.”
The Post noted that “now that Trump looks likely to return the White House, with his picks to clean house at Justice, they’ve settled a winnable lawsuit to reward Strzok and Page.”
