An FBI official will testify before two House committees Thursday investigating allegations of bias within the agency against President Donald Trump.
Counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok will tell lawmakers that his work has never been tainted by politics and that the intense scrutiny he is facing represents “just another victory notch in Putin’s belt,” according to prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press.
Strzok will say in his opening statement that he has never allowed personal opinions to infect his work, that he knew information during the campaign that had the potential to damage Trump but never contemplated leaking it and that the focus on him by Congress is misguided and plays into “our enemies’ campaign to tear America apart,” according to the prepared remarks.
He worked on Special Council Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and allegations of collusion with Russia until last year, when he was removed after text messages he exchanged with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page were revealed, showing their mutual contempt for Trump.
Strzok and Page were involved in a romantic relationship in 2016, when they were both involved in the investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server. President Trump has seized on the Strzok and Page’s texts to denounce the Mueller probe as nothing more than a “rigged witch hunt.”
Strzok will testify Thursday before a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform committees, one week after appearing before the panels behind closed doors.
Page also briefly served on Mueller’s investigative team until the revelations of her texts with Strzok. She resigned from the FBI in May. She is facing charges of contempt of Congress after failing to appear Wednesday for private meetings with the Judiciary and Oversight committees.
Trump lashed out directly at Page in another Twitter post Thursday from Brussels:
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