The Justice Department on Friday settled a lawsuit with two former F.B.I. officials who had accused the Trump administration of violating their privacy by sharing their texts disparaging former President Donald J. Trump with the news media, according to court documents.
As part of the settlement, the government agreed to pay the former officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, concluding at least some of the litigation. The amount was not disclosed in court filings, but Mr. Strzok’s law firm said he received $1.2 million.
Their texts incited a political firestorm after the Justice Department in December 2017 invited reporters to review them at night before handing them over to Congress. Then a senior F.B.I. counterintelligence agent who helped oversee the bureau’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia in 2016, Mr. Strzok exchanged inflammatory messages with Ms. Page, a bureau lawyer involved in the inquiry. Republicans seized on the texts to try to discredit the investigation.
The agreement is likely to anger Mr. Trump, who has railed against the pair for years and leveled baseless accusations that the investigation was a “witch hunt” intended to damage his campaign. Mr. Strzok drafted the memo opening the investigation, which was approved by his superiors.
In 2019, Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page filed separate lawsuits against the department and the F.B.I. Mr. Strzok is still suing the Justice Department on two other counts, claiming it also violated his constitutional rights and that its subsequent decision to fire him was politically motivated. Mr. Strzok is seeking to be reinstated to his job so he can retire with full benefits.
Mr. Strzok’s lawyer, Aitan D. Goelman, welcomed the decision, adding that he would continue to fight the remaining claims. “This outcome is a critical step forward in addressing the government’s unfair and highly politicized treatment of Pete,” he said in a statement. “As important as it is for him, it also vindicates the privacy interests of all government employees.”
Ms. Page left the bureau in 2018; her suit against the department centered only on whether it had violated her privacy. Amy Jeffress, a lawyer for Ms. Page, also praised the outcome. “The evidence was overwhelming that the release of text messages to the press in December 2017 was for partisan political purposes and was against the law,” she said.
Ms. Jeffress did not disclose the amount Ms. Page received but said it was less than what the Justice Department agreed to pay Mr. Strzok.
The long-running litigation ensnared many former and current high-ranking officials who were deposed, including Mr. Trump, the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, and Rod J. Rosenstein, the former deputy attorney general who authorized releasing the texts to reporters the day before he was scheduled to testify before Congress.
The texts all but ensured that Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page were consistently in the cross hairs of Mr. Trump and his allies. As president, Mr. Trump often singled out the pair by name, lobbing insults at rallies and on social media. It was like “being punched in the gut,” Ms. Page has said, adding that his behavior was “sickening.” Mr. Strzok, in his book, described Mr. Trump as a national security threat.
In his texts, Mr. Strzok expressed fear over the possibility that Mr. Trump could win office, saying the prospect made him “scared for our organization.” While in office, Mr. Trump repeatedly attacked the F.B.I. and criticized Christopher A. Wray, the bureau director whom he appointed.
Even as the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, found the bureau had sufficient reason to open the Russian inquiry, he found no evidence that political bias had affected the bureau’s work. Still, Mr. Horowitz said in a report that he was “deeply troubled” by the texts.
Ms. Page, who worked on the Russia investigation, did not play a role in the opening of the contentious investigation, according to the inspector general’s report.
The agreement was the second time the Justice Department has reached a settlement with a former bureau official who had come under attack by Mr. Trump. In 2018, the department fired Andrew G. McCabe, as F.B.I. deputy director, just hours before he was scheduled to retire.
But in 2021, the department reversed Mr. McCabe’s firing, settling a lawsuit he filed claiming he was dismissed for political reasons. Under the settlement, Mr. McCabe was able to officially retire, receive his pension and other benefits and collect about $200,000 in missed pension payments.
In May, the Justice Department disclosed that it had reached a tentative settlement with Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page, resolving all the claims brought under the Privacy Act.
Republicans expressed deep dismay at the proposed agreement. At a congressional hearing the next month, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, asked Attorney General Merrick B. Garland about the proposed settlement.
“So you go after a president and you get rewarded for doing so, according to the Justice Department?” Mr. Jordan asked.
Mr. Garland responded, “It’s not a question of reward. It’s a question of the government paying for violating the law.”
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