Disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok loses long-running lawsuit over firing for anti-Trump texts

Disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok has lost his long-running lawsuit claiming he was illegally fired for sending messages attacking President Trump during his first term.

Strzok had argued that he was only fired in 2018 because Trump reacted furiously to texts the agent exchanged while investigating ties between Russia and the Republicans’ 2016 campaign.

But US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Tuesday that Strzok failed to show it violated his First Amendment rights.

The Obama-appointed judge praised Strzok as having been “among the FBI’s leading counterintelligence experts” — but ruled there there was “no genuine dispute of material fact” to fight the firing.

While ruling that the fired agent’s were not violated, Jackson did not rule on whether Strzok’s firing was “appropriate.”

The full ruling is under seal, but the summary showed it rejected Strzok’s argument that he had a deal with the FBI which said he would not be fired for his action, but merely demoted and suspended for 60 days.

His attorney, Aitan Goelman, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

Strzok was fired amid the scandal of texts that showed a clear anti-Trump bias, including one in which he suggested the FBI might “stop” Trump from becoming president.

It was also revealed that Strzok was having an affair with Lisa Page, the FBI agent with whom he exchanged many of the incriminating texts.

Page, who quit the FBI in 2018, filed a separate lawsuit in 2019 at the same time as Strzok, arguing that the Justice Department’s disclosure of her texts to reporters violated the Privacy Act.

She was awarded an $800,000 payout by the Justice Department last year during the Biden administration, while Strzok was awarded $1.2 million.

Strzok’s claims related to his firing were not part of the settlement.

The former agent has long denied that his personal views on Trump influenced his actions during the Russia probe, and was cleared of bias by a lengthy inspector general review.

Strzok — who worked for the Bureau for 22 years before his dismissal — can appeal Jackson’s decision to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.