Compromised Quotes

“I had lived through four revolutions on three continents. Whether in Iran, West Africa, or Haiti, all shared common characteristics, and all taught me lessons about dictators and authoritarians and their hunger to consolidate power and obtain, or at least convey legitimacy. That quest for legitimacy played out in a host of ways. One was the desire to manipulate, control, or discredit media. A relentless distortion of reality numbs a country’s populace to outrage and weakens its ability to discern truth from fiction. Another way dictators sought to secure power and legitimacy was by co-opting the power of the state, its military, law enforcement, and judicial systems, to carry out personal goals and vendettas rather than the nation’s needs. Still, another was by undermining dissent, questioning the validity of opposition, and refusing to honor public will, up to and including threatening or preventing the peaceful transfer of power.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“These were lessons that I would learn again and again in the years to come, but always in distant lands, always in places that lacked the robust democratic institutions of the United States and the legal scaffolding that supports it, the Constitution. I never thought I’d have occasion to revisit these lessons at home in the United States, and I never expected to see the grotesque traits of dictators in Haiti or Iran reflected in my own Commander-in-Chief.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Is this a coordinated conspiracy? The uncomfortable truth was that I didn’t know. Despite everything that had occurred, we still didn’t know what Trump knew, and the answer would likely come only from him or his inner circle. I was skeptical that all the different threads amounted to anything more than bumbling incompetence, a confederacy of dunces who were too dumb to collude as someone joked. In my view, they were most likely a collection of grifters pursuing individual personal interests, their own money, and power-driven agendas.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Why solicit more assaults from critics, many in the highest parts of our government, who have deliberately attempted to distract attention from the real issue of a compromised president’s corrupt complicity in Russian interference? Especially when, aside from required testimony, I have stayed silent for years. First out of duty to the FBI’s rules and then to protect and respect an ongoing investigation. Because the Russians haven’t gone away.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Mueller may have shuttered his office. DOJ may have declined various prosecutions, although, thankfully several investigations continue. Men and women vigilant to national security threats may have been chased out of public service, but the Russians are there, and they’re coming at our 2020 elections with a vengeance.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“To emphasize the fact that the ICA had not relied on the Steele material for its conclusions about Russia’s intentions, the information was ultimately segregated into a separate addendum at the end of the briefing, to which only a smaller group of people would be privy. The decision was also a gesture of respect—an attempt to avoid embarrassing Trump. With a rueful Thanks, boss, Comey told us that Clapper wanted him to deliver the Steele information to Trump in the final, smaller portion of the briefing.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell voiced skepticism about the briefing and refused to issue a joint statement naming the Russians.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“The FBI is working closely with our federal, state, and local colleagues, asking them to double-check defenses, and to continue to apply the disinfectant of sunshine against foreign actors seeking to gain advantage from the shadows.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“While I was researching material for the editorial, I ran across a remarkable quote from George Washington that seemed chillingly prophetic, which began, “Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of Republican Government.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“In the United States, about one in four adults uses Twitter. All of those people may be broadcasting what they had for breakfast or pictures of their cats, but many of them are also sending out links to articles and newscasts they agree with, retweets of people they admire, and political statements that may be trying to advance or enhance their view of their world.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Clearly he had not kept his relationship with the FBI confidential. That’s a key component of being a source, and we closed Steele as a result. It’s important to note that we did so because he was a control problem, not because his information was bad. He told others about his confidential relationship with”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“His was hardly the only source of information for the application; we had developed information about Page from a variety of sources over years of investigations.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“My high-level assessment would be this: we never obtained information to suggest that Steele was lying to us. We learned things about his source network that improved our understanding of aspects of the information. And some of his information did ultimately prove false, although we had no reason to suspect he knew it was inaccurate when he gave it to us.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“During 2015 hackers repeatedly breached U.S. government computer systems. Not just the State Department, which seemed to be constantly ejecting unwanted intruders, but the Pentagon and the White House as well. Derek and I joked about how her private email probably was more secure than a State Department system, which we knew would have been hacked.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“In short, it was a mess. But not, apparently, an illegal mess.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Our investigations revealed Donald Trump’s willingness to further the malign interests of one of our most formidable adversaries, apparently for his own personal gain. They also showed his willingness to accept political assistance from an opponent like Russia, and it follows, his willingness to subvert everything that America stands for. That’s not patriotic. It’s the opposite.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“If the international perception of our government could be reduced to our being transactionally corrupt, racist, intolerant, and opportunistic grifters, well, then we would be no different from all those we criticize—and no more alluring to would-be sources than our competitors in Russia and elsewhere.)”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“It laid out what Russia was doing, noting that while the tactics were new, Russian attempts at election interference were not, and urging Americans to think carefully about all the news and social media they were consuming. While I was researching material for the editorial, I ran across a remarkable quote from George Washington that seemed chillingly prophetic, which began, “against the insidious wiles of foreign influence, I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens, that jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“We could only hope that Trump’s restraint, deliberate or unwitting, would continue, and although he might be tempted to interfere yet again in the investigations into him, our commander in chief would abide by both common sense and the unwritten rules about acceptable presidential behavior that had guided all his predecessors. Yet, deep down, we knew that he probably wouldn’t.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“I also cannot conceive of a sadder testament to Trump’s America: fringe elements of a nation, governed by violent invective and vindictive fury. The President’s vitriol posed a physical threat to his targets, which now included me, my children, and my wife.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“By the same token, people today are resistant to the notion that by sharing dubious stories on Facebook, they're furthering the goals of a foreign adversary. Many people, in fact seem to resent the suggestion because of the intimation that they're gullible, easily tricked, or consciously aligned politically with that foreign adversary, even if none of those things are true.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“From a counterintelligence perspective, social media also makes it more difficult for people to recognize, let alone believe, that they've been duped. In the context of the analog, pre-internet intelligence world, most people prefer to believe that they're not working with an intelligence officer [of foreign adversary] even if they have suspicions. Most would rather believe, for example, that they have a friendship with a professor at a foreign university.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

“Equally worrisome was the way Trump used information from Russian affiliated sites on the campaign trail. We didn’t think it was necessarily nefarious. He just amplified evidence to buttress a viewpoint, however wild or incredible, that he wanted to insert into the debate. But it troubled us that he was willing to use what amounted to Russian disinformation in pursuit of those ends. The information wasn’t coming from CNN or FOX. It was coming from places like RT and Sputnik. Outlets that were clearly closely affiliated with Russia. Similarly, we knew that WIKILEAKS had released material that the Russian government had stolen from the DNC and the Clinton campaign. By late summer 2016, the public did too, thanks to reports in the press. But Trump and his campaign, didn’t seem to care. The stolen material was helpful to them and he mentioned it, a lot. Over the course of 2016, Trump made reference to WIKILEAKS over 135 times on the campaign trail. From a counterintelligence perspective, it was problematic that a presidential candidate would use material stolen by a hostile foreign adversary for his own political gain. From a patriotic perspective, I wasn’t just worried about a candidate relying on actors outside the US to help his presidential prospects, I was repulsed.”
― Peter Strzok, Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump