Former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok compared former President Trump’s recent attacks on the Department of Justice, specifically the classified papers case, to those of authoritarians “around the world.”
“The problem isn’t so much that he immediately turns to try to fundraise from it; the problem is that he’s doing what authoritarians all over the world do,” Strzok told MSNBC’s Alex Witt on Sunday. “He is portraying his opponents in a negative light.” In flowery, horrible terms, he portrays his opponents as people who are not only out to get him, but also out to kill him.
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Strzok’s comments follow the former president’s bogus allegation in a fundraising email last week that President Biden and the FBI were “locked and loaded and ready to take me out” during law enforcement’s 2022 search for sensitive papers at his Mar-a-Lago home.
The former president was referring to the “deadly force” doctrine, which effectively bars the use of force unless “necessary.” It is a routine policy that applies to all searches, including the document probe at Biden’s Delaware residence.
Strzok called Trump’s claims “utterly false,” noting that he has heard the same statement hundreds of times over his career.
Following the former president’s assertions, special counsel Jack Smith urged Judge Aileen Cannon, who is supervising the case, on Friday to prevent Trump from discussing the matter in a way that could threaten law enforcement.
Cannon postponed the case indefinitely earlier this month, pushing certain court sessions into late July but rejecting establishing a trial date. She attributed the delay to the need to determine the presentation of the secret materials at trial.
Others sounded the alarm following Trump’s remarks, labeling the rhetoric alarming. Former FBI Director James Comey expressed concern that the former president “is coming” for the justice system. Attorney General Merrick Garland also described the remarks as “extremely dangerous.”
Strzok said that Trump’s statement was dark because “if and when he returns to power, he’s normalized this image to provide a justification to go out and investigate people, to go out and round up people he’s called vermin.”
“It normalizes this idea that the other side is trying to use violence against me, and therefore, I’m justified in using violence against them,” he stated. “It’s a troubling development, and it should stop.”
Strzok expressed optimism that Trump’s nominee Cannon will respond to Smith’s lawsuit and end the former president’s “outrageous behavior.”
