His side: Peter Strzok speaks

former fbi special agent peter strzok was fired over text messages critical of president trump now he's writing about his controversial role in the russia investigation and answering questions from national security correspondent david martin nobody had any joy in doing this nobody was seeking to try and open that case peter strzok is the fbi agent who started it all opening the investigation into donald trump's campaign three months before the 2016 presidential election you're the guy that writes the official document that opens the investigation i do sitting right inside in the house inspired by mick jagger of all people he code named the investigation [Music] crossfire hurricane jumping jack flash was running through my mind and one of the lyrics mick jagger kind of swaggering and saying i was born in a crossfire hurricane kind of hut it's a pretty good name attorney general william barr has said crossfire hurricane was based on a very thin slender reed in his new book compromised strzok describes exactly what that read was george papadopoulos at the time was a very young foreign policy advisor to the trump campaign in may 2016 just as trump was emerging as the unlikely republican front runner thank you everybody papadopoulos was in london having drinks with some australian diplomats papadopoulos told him that somebody on the trump campaign had received an offer that said the russians had material that would be damaging to hillary clinton and to obama and they offered to coordinate the release of that information in a way that would help the trump campaign the australians didn't make much of it until trump made this appeal about hillary clinton's e-mails russia if you're listening i hope you're able to find the 30 000 emails that are missing those australian diplomats heard that and contacted the fbi when they saw that statement by trump that that triggered the memory of the conversation they had with papadopoulos so donald trump with his own words brought this investigation down on himself according to what the foreign government told us yes give me the theory of the case when you opened this investigation russia had offered to assist electing someone to be president of the united states from an intelligence perspective i can't think of anything more significant strzok identified four suspects in the trump campaign papadopoulos carter page paul manafort and michael flynn based on their contacts with russian officials that's flynn a retired lieutenant general who would become president trump's first national security adviser seated next to vladimir putin at a 2015 dinner in moscow but the fbi turned up nothing incriminating on him so were you ready to close your investigation of flynn we were that obviously didn't happen what changed uh he had a bunch of phone calls and uh contact with the russian ambassador to the united states before the trump administration had assumed power flynn called ambassador sergey kislyak what's wrong with that i think what makes a problem is when you look at the content and nature of the things that flynn tells the ambassador flynn asked kislyak not to retaliate for obama administration's sanctions against russia the conversation in which flynn potentially interfered with obama's foreign policy was recorded by u.s intelligence so instead of closing the case strzok sat down to question flynn the strangest thing happened it was very clear that he wasn't telling the truth and we repeatedly tried to get him to that by using and offering phrases the exact things he had said with the ambassador in the conversations as a former head of the defense intelligence agency flynn knew his conversations with the russian ambassador would be monitored so it's the damnedest thing he knew you knew but he's still denying it i can't explain it it sounds like the old washington story the cover-up is worse than the deed itself and to this day i don't think we yet know the true story of what was behind general flynn's statements to us flynn pled guilty to lying but now the justice department has moved to dismiss the charges because attorney general barr told cbs news the fbi kept the case open just so struck could try to catch flynn in a lie and they kept it open for the express purpose of trying to catch lay lay a perjury trap for general flynn flynn's case pales next to that of another struck suspect paul manafort who served as trump's campaign chairman according to a new report by the senate select committee on intelligence manafort was a grave counterintelligence threat who sought to secretly share with a russian intelligence officer sensitive campaign polling data if it's their polls isn't it theirs to give to whoever they want to give if you're giving that to somebody who is passing it to a foreign adversary who is targeting our elections how is that possibly okay is it a crime whether or not it's a crime to me it's unequivocally unpatriotic by the time manafort was convicted of tax evasion and bank fraud strzok was no longer on the case he had been fired by special counsel robert mueller for sending anti-trump text messages to fbi lawyer lisa page with whom he was having an affair july 21 2016 summer before the election trump is a disaster and then one week later you open that crossfire hurricane investigation i mean it just looks like you saw a way to stop donald trump from becoming president of the united states i can understand why some people might think that but they had nothing to do with each other one week after strzok opened the investigation lisa page texted him trump's not ever going to become president right right strzok replied no no he's not we'll stop it so why shouldn't trump supporters suspect you of using the investigation as a tool to take him down and what i'd point them to are all the investigations that have been done that have conclusively proved that didn't occur the justice department inspector general found no evidence that political bias influenced the opening of crossfire hurricane but it did find serious performance failures in the investigation of another struck suspect campaign adviser carter page who was never charged with any crime is it sloppy work or is it fbi agents trying too hard to get something on members of the trump campaign i don't think at all that it's anything improper you get people who are overworked who make mistakes and don't get me wrong inexcusable mistakes attorney general barr disagrees the evidence shows that we're not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness there's something far more troubling here and we're going to get to the bottom of it one fbi lawyer kevin kleinsmith has already pled guilty to falsifying a document and u.s attorney john durham is conducting a full investigation into the conduct of crossfire hurricane which will include a re-examination of strzok's every move did you write that i did write that sir okay were you under direct political expression engaging in hyperbole he remains branded you might say compromised by his text messages the president has accused strzok of treason lambasted him on twitter and even ended his famous helsinki press conference with vladimir putin like this and if anybody watched peter strzok testify it was a disgrace to the fbi it was a disgrace to our country so how does it feel to be in donald trump's crosshairs it's horrible it angers you it scares you that hasn't stopped him from putting one of the president's tweets peter strzok is a fraud on the cover of his book you know it's going to put you back in the crosshairs i do it's going to be worth it yes david this is a threat that we have not faced in our modern history what russia is doing what they did in 2016 to attack our election to help trump what they are doing now to do the very same thing is something every american ought to be thinking about and considering

Channel: CBS Sunday Morning

Views: 121,802

Keywords: CBS Sunday Morning, CBS News, news, FBI Special Agent, Peter Strzok, president trump, Trump campaign, russian, russia, criminal convictions, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Michael Flynn

Id: hUvXsWSRTjk

Length: 9min 20sec (560 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 06 2020