Peter Strzok Did NOT Work For The CIA

This claim that Peter Strzok was some sort of covert CIA operative within the FBI came up in 2018. I dismissed it at the time as the work of a goof who couldn’t find his ass with both hands when it comes to the FBI as an organization. And so I forgot all about it.

I was distressed to learn from commenters yesterday that this notion remains active among at least some readers of this substack, even though its central claim is easily revealed as nonsense by looking up an FBI organization chart online.

Look. I worked for the FBI as a Special Agent for 28 years, from 1978 to 2006. For approximately 22 of those years I worked in the Counterintelligence Division in one capacity or another. I have a pretty good grasp of the FBI’s organizational structure, its operating procedures, and its overall institutional culture.

Although it seemed a waste of time—a commodity I have far too little of—I looked this narrative up again today. In doing so I came across a fact check of it at Snopes. I have no reason to promote Snopes as a site or source, but everything that’s said in their entry re Strzok is true. Rather than expend any more time than is necessary, I’m pasting in the final portion of the Snopes article, because this portion deals with the central—and totally idiotic—”proof” of this narrative: That Peter Strzok had a CIA rather than an FBI title (“Section Chief”). This is stupid on any number of levels, but I’ll just say that in my 28 years with the FBI there have always been Section Chiefs and this fact is readily verifiable online—I shouldn’t have to waste my time on this, but that’s the kind of guy I am.

Snopes:

Big League Politics had a ready explanation for this, though, namely that Strzok was actually working for the CIA:

The BLP insider who’s worked with both [former CIA director John] Breannan [sic] and Strzok tells us that Strzok was never FBI he was part of the highest level of covert operatives, sliding into posts within the CIA or FBI to infiltrate, influence and observe. This is exactly what we saw with the Special Counsel appointment that resulted after a failed operation.

Peter Strzok Jr. was placed in the FBI to ensure a win for Hillary Clinton and buffer negative press (like the Weiner laptop case, which he covered up). That’s the real deal. Revealing Peter Strzok’s identity would have been a problem because it’s called unmasking but since he is in the limelight and out of the shadows it’s time to lay all the cards FACE up on the table for all to see who Peter Strzok really is.

In addition to citing the anonymous informant as the source of this claim, the post linked out to an article referencing an unclassified document that supposedly proved Strzok worked for the CIA and the FBI at the same time:

A [sic] unclassified document printed on FBI letterhead dated January 20, 2016, which contains the subject line “Supplemental Classification Review and Determination” was addressed to the Bureau of National Security’s Assistant Secretary Gregory B. Starr from Peter Strzok who is listed as “Section Chief” of the “Counterespionage Section” in reference to Strzok’s CIA post. Keep in mind, this is not an FBI post as Strzok’s position at the FBI is “Deputy Assistant Director Counterintelligence Division” not “Section Chief” which is a CIA post.

Which is utter nonsense. Although the specified document did list Strzok’s title as “section chief” of the Counterespionage Section, it’s patently untrue that section chief isn’t an FBI post. Both agencies have sections and chiefs (and assistant section chiefs). Not only was section chief precisely the position Strzok held before being promoted to deputy assistant director at the FBI, but others have held that title, too.

Strzok received that promotion in summer of 2016.

The claim that Strzok was “placed in the FBI to ensure a win for Hillary Clinton” is flatly absurd. Strzok joined the agency in 1996. Was the plot to ensure a Hillary Clinton win in 2016 already in motion 20 years beforehand?

The Big League Politics post was a clumsy, error-ridden effort to generate a “deep state” conspiracy theory around FBI agent Peter Strzok, who, up until the text message incident that derailed him in 2017, seems to have trodden a fairly straightforward career path in the agency over a period of more than two decades.

This is exactly correct. There is NOTHING in Strzok’s career path over 20 years that is unusual, beyond his ambition for promotion.

Peter Strzok spent several years of his childhood in Iran, but he did not “grow up” there. There is no evidence nor any good reason to suppose that he acted as an “envoy” or “intel operative” in U.S. dealings with Iran at any time during the Obama administration. And the claim that Strzok is or was a covert CIA operative “placed” in the FBI to help Hillary Clinton win the presidency and subvert the Trump administration is a flight of fancy divorced from all evidence and logic.