Peter Strzok Denies His Anti-Trump Texts Were ‘Biased’

FBI agent Peter Strzok told the U.S. House of Representatives Thursday that the strident, even profane, views he expressed in text messages to his mistress, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, were not biased.

The exchange occurred during questioning by Rep. Steve King (R-IA):

Rep. King: We’ve listened to a dogmatic defense of the implausible argument that no matter how biased you were, no matter how profane in that bias you were, it didn’t affect your judgment or your decisions. Now, that’s a tough argument to make. But I recall your response to Mr. Duncan of Tennessee on that topic, and you said, “I don’t agree with the characterization of my views as biased.” Do you hold with that position, that your views are not biased?

Strzok: Yes.

Rep. King: Whether or not they colored your activities as an agent?

Strzok: I believe they did not color them, and I believe they are not biased.

Rep. King: The derogatory texts that you delivered, that have been before this committee for the better part of this day ,don’t reflect a bias?

Strzok: They don’t, sir. And why? Not a single representative of the [Inspector General] has been able to demonstrate a single act, not one, indicating bias, not one.

Rep. King: It’s one thing to say that you found a way to wall off your bias, but it’s not possible to take under oath and tell the American people and this committee that there’s not bias.

Strzok: Sir —

Rep. King: The evidence of this bias is replete throughout these documents that we have.

The Inspector General’s report did, in fact, find that Strzok had expressed bias, and could not rule out that his bias may have affected the FBI investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails. A separate IG investigation on the Russia probe has yet to be completed.

Later, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) accused Strzok of lying about being biased, which provoked angry interjections by Democrats.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.