Judge rejects ex-FBI agent’s claim he was illegally fired for disparaging Trump in texts
September 24, 2025
A federal judge has thrown out a former FBI agent’s claims that he was wrongfully fired after sending disparaging text messages to a colleague about President Donald Trump. Peter Strzok, a former top counterintelligence agent who played a crucial role in the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016, alleged in a lawsuit that the FBI caved to pressure from Trump when it fired him. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Tuesday rejected Strzok’s claim that his August 2018 firing violated his First Amendment free speech rights. She said the FBI’s interest in avoiding the appearance of bias outweighed Strzok’s interest in expressing his political opinions.