Peter Strzok: Trump is ‘compromised’ on national security

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was fired from the bureau during the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 campaign, said Tuesday that he believes the president is “compromised,” and would protect his own interests over those of the U.S.

In an interview with “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday, Strzok was questioned by co-host Tony Dokoupil over the title of his book, “Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump,” and whether he had any evidence to back the claim up.

“There’s a very big claim at the center of it and that is that the president of the United States is compromised, unable to put the country’s interest above his own. What is your best evidence of that charge?” Dokoupil asked at the top of the conversation.

Strzok responded, claiming that those who have supervised counterintelligence investigations as he had during his time with the FBI believe that Trump would put his own interests above the country’s.

“Look, I do think the president is compromised. I spent over two decades recruiting spies and supervising counterintelligence investigations throughout the United States and around the world,” he said. “There’s nobody who has done that kind of work who does not believe that the president is compromised, and when you ask that question, when you look at that fact, you have to wonder how deep that compromise is and what he would or would not do to protect his own interest.”

Dokoupil then pressed Strzok over whether he had seen actual evidence pointing to Trump’s efforts to protect his own personal status at the expense of U.S. interests. Strzok pointed to the president’s past public statements questioning the usefulness of NATO and allegations that Russian agents had placed bounties on U.S. troops, which he argued was enough to make the case that the president was making decisions that make “no sense for American security.”

“When it comes to his absolute refusal to respond to the Russians placing bounties on the heads of our soldiers in Afghanistan, when you look at his statements questioning our commitment to the NATO alliance, asking whether or not we would come to the mutual aid and defend our allies in Europe, when you look at his failure to respond to the poisoning and attempted assassination of a Russian dissident,” Strzok said, referring to the recent poisoning of a Russian opposition leader.

“When you look at his absolute silence when it came to Russia ramming a truck in Syria and injuring many of our servicemen, you have to ask yourself why on earth is he doing these actions, allowing these things to occur without speaking out?” Strzok added.

The White House has repeatedly dismissed the claims made by Strzok as those of a disgruntled ex-employee whose personal politics clashed with the president’s. Strzok was fired from Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation after text messages between him and an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, were released and revealed remarks highly critical of Trump.

The president himself has repeatedly mocked Strzok and Page publicly at rallies, joking about their affair and suggesting that Strzok and the Mueller probe were an effort to illegitimately overturn the results of the 2016 election.

Mueller’s investigation ended last year with no charges being recommended for the president. It also notably did not taking a position on whether the president had attempted to obstruct justice during the course of the probe.