In Washington, D.C., it was 10 hours of fireworks in Congress as FBI agent Peter Strzok faced off with House Republican lawmakers Thursday during a hearing convened by the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees. Peter Strzok oversaw the opening of the investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 election. He also briefly served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, investigating Trump’s ties to Russia. He was removed from this team after the release of a series of personal text messages he had exchanged with a senior FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair, in which Strzok expressed his personal opposition to Trump. This is Strzok responding to Republican lawmakers questioning him about one of the messages.
Peter Strzok: “That was written late at night, off the cuff, and it was in response to a series of events that included then-candidate Trump insulting the immigrant family of a fallen war hero. And my presumption, based on that horrible, disgusting behavior, that the American population would not elect somebody demonstrating that behavior to be president of the United States. It was, in no way, unequivocally, any suggestion that me, the FBI would take any action whatsoever to improperly impact the electoral process.”