As regular readers surely know, when a political actor or actors want to minimize the impact of bad news, they release it on a Friday evening, in the hope that everyone will forget it happened by the end of the weekend. We have no doubt that this was the plan, here, because this story is a doozy:
Friday evening news dump shows they know this is a scandal.
— (((tedfrank))) (@tedfrank) July 26, 2024
Indeed, Politico got ahold of the settlement and gave us more details:
UPDATE: POLITICO obtained Justice Department's settlements with ex-FBI officials Peter Strzok & Lisa Page over release of text messages Trump mocked. Total: $2 million ($1.2M/$800K) & rest of Strzok's suit, over his firing, continues. w/@kyledcheney https://t.co/uJmC46jP0x
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) July 27, 2024
From reading the article, this appears to be a settlement of the claims that somehow releasing information to the public was a violation of their privacy, even though the lovebirds put the information on government phones. But a separate suit claiming that Strzok was wrongly fired continues.
Just to take a trip down memory lane, here are some of the offending texts as reprinted in the Durham report:
Strzok: [Bernie Sanders is] an idiot like Trump.
***
(After exchanging an article about Trump):
Page: What an utter idiot.
Strzok: No doubt.
***
Page: And holy [expletive] Cruz just dropped out of the race. It's going to be a Clinton Trump race. Unbelievable.
Strzok: What?!?!??
Page: You heard that right my friend.
Strzok: I saw [T]rump won, figured it would be a bit. Now the pressure really starts to finish [the Clinton email investigation] ...
Page: It sure does.
***
Page: [Trump's] not going to become president, right? Right?!
Strzok: No. No, he's not. We'll stop it.
And the Durham report doesn’t mention this one, also from Strzok to Page:
I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40.
This information was taken from their FBI issued phones. We don’t believe for one second that if the Justice Department vigorously fought these cases, Strzok or Page would get a dime for either claim. Indeed, the government would probably be legally required to turn over this information if any of the current federal Trump criminal cases went to trial. So how could they possibly claim a right to privacy?
As for the wrongful termination, we wrote this a few years ago to Peter Strzok:
You are an entitled idiot.
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) August 14, 2018
Your text promising to stop a candidate from becoming President is an instant firing offense. An FBI agent should never indicate that he hopes to influence politics. The only thing shocking about your firing is it took so long. https://t.co/dHo5jt7Spy
And, naturally, if this is evidence of an FBI witchhunt to overturn a lawful election, that's a firing offense, too.
— (((Aaron Walker))) (@AaronWorthing) August 14, 2018
You are supposed to avoid even the appearance of political bias and you spectacularly failed that as much as one could, @petestrzok.
/end of thread
For some reason, after we wrote that, Strzok blocked this author. Was it something we said?
So, pardon us if we agree with Ted Frank when we say that in this author’s opinion, it sure looks like the fix was in. This surely doesn’t look like a genuine settlement to us. This looks like a payment for job well done. It seems more like:
‘Good job, Petey and Lisa. You helped us seriously disrupt Trump’s first term. Here’s your check. Maybe you can buy a love shack somewhere.’
The indispensable Luke Rosiak lays it out:
A top FBI official and his mistress/FBI attorney said that they would stop Donald Trump from being president. The FBI did, in fact, derail his presidency with a baseless conspiracy coming from its own paid informants. Then Biden paid him one million dollars. https://t.co/aYJU1JxtfG
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) July 27, 2024
Sadly, there isn't much we can do about this kind of bad faith settlement.
And we have yet to see a positive reaction to the story:
Rigged every bit as much as the last election.
— AmericaAsFounded🍊 (@SinceWollman86) July 26, 2024
Rewarding his behavior by disguising it as a legal settlement.
— A #1, Emperor of the North Pole (@railboss) July 26, 2024
the establishment always finds a way to pay people for their subversion
— HelioWave (@heliodown) July 27, 2024
usually its a book deal...but a court settlement works too
funny how they even managed to toss into the article that the accusations against strzok are "baseless"
...you don't hate the media enough
The book deals are often the worst scam around. It would be hard to do anything about it under the First Amendment, but know what they are: Rewards for either Democrats providing service, or for Republicans who stab other Republicans in the back.
Wow. A jaw-dropping reward for two corrupt government employees.
— Nervous Neanderthal (@NervousNeander1) July 27, 2024
— Susan (@Suzzzzeee1) July 26, 2024
We will admit before that infamous Strzok hearing we were worried that it would be a disaster. We thought he would get up there and try to pretend he is Joe Friday and intone seriously about the threat to Democracy that Donald Trump posed. Then we saw that clip that Susan shared as a gif, and we admitted that we were wrong to worry.
Again, we weren’t shocked that he was fired. We were shocked it took so long.
Strzok engages in workplace misconduct
— Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee) July 27, 2024
He gets caught
He sues the government
The Biden Admin gives him $1.2 million
Wolves in wolves’ clothing https://t.co/PNIVXf60vF
Classic tactic for funneling government money to friends. Have them sue you, then settle for big $$. Nearly foolproof as long as you control the decision to settle. https://t.co/fQRUWEBvux
— Dr. hbd nrx 🐸 (@HbdNrx) July 27, 2024
Given that Strzok and Page are fools, we think it is demonstrably foolproof.
The Left never leaves its soldiers on the battlefield. You’ve gotta admire that; they’re far more serious. https://t.co/2HQDZxmEss
— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) July 27, 2024
A Friday night news dump F you. Brazen stuff. These people have no privacy on government devices. Their messages belong to us. The worse you behave, the more you get paid as long as it’s in service of the correct side. Disgraceful. https://t.co/oSyvzOcTcN
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) July 26, 2024
The regime takes care of its own
— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) July 26, 2024
Strzok and Page conspired against President Trump and Merrick Garland is writing each a 7-figure check https://t.co/3HD9Nye2ES
Gratuitous “Republicans seize” in the middle of the story. Guess they exhausted from all the pouncing.
— Brad Brown (@rbradbrown) July 27, 2024
And just to remind you, the purpose of a ‘Republicans pounce’ or ‘Republicans seize’ in a leftist article is to remind all good leftists ‘if you tell people you are upset about this, you are helping those evil Republicans.’ It is a tribalist signal to the party faithful not to catch themselves agreeing with Republicans.
So much for 'country before party.'
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