Who says sending anti-Trump texts to your girlfriend doesn’t pay?
Sure, such texts cost Peter Strzok his 22-year career with the FBI, but they also seem to have garnered the disgraced former agent a lot of support – enough to raise more than $325,000 for his legal expenses in one day on a GoFundMe page.
The page, launched Monday by “Friends Of Special Agent Peter Strzok,” initially sought $150,000 to be “put into a trust dedicated to covering Pete’s hefty – and growing – legal costs and his lost income.”
More from USA Today:
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says District’s parade cost estimates lower than Trump’s claims
Trump at 36 percent approval among African-Americans, new poll finds
Anti-student agenda at Education Department under DeVos is Trump’s most radical move
But that sum was reached quickly and the target amount was later raised to $350,000. Since then, the requested sum has been raised to $500,000 and the donations have climbed to more than $428,000.
“Peter Strzok, a man who has spent his entire life working to help keep us and our nation safe, has been fired,” reads a message on the GoFundMe page. “He needs your help.”
The post goes on to say that Strzok has “been the target of highly politicized attacks, including frequent slanderous statements from President Trump, who actively – and apparently successfully – pressured FBI officials to fire Pete.”
It also says his firing did not follow the FBI’s “normal and independent process” because it overruled “the decision of the career professionals in the FBI’s disciplinary division.”
The page has drawn in donations from more than 11,000 donors. The largest was a donation of $2,000.
Strzok’s lawyer confirmed Monday that his client had been fired, joining former Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe as high-profile FBI officials driven out since President Donald Trump took office.
Strzok had become the poster child for the perceived anti-Trump “deep state” among the president’s supporters after it was revealed he sent text messages to his girlfriend (and co-worker) vowing to stop Trump from winning the 2016 election.
Those texts cost him his spot on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team and fed claims that the entire Russia probe is a partisan “witch hunt.”
But Strzok, who also was part of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, insisted during a heated hearing with lawmakers last month that his personal opinions of Trump hadn’t affected his work.
A June 14 report by the Justice Department inspector general was “deeply troubled” by Strzok’s anti-Trump text messages, but did not find that his beliefs affected his handling of the Clinton investigation.
Strzok’s GoFundMe success is not unprecedented. Earlier this year a similar fundraising campaign for McCabe raised more than $500,000.
