Former Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah said the FBI should have pulled agent Peter Strzok’s security clearance for fear of blackmail arising from his extramarital affair with FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
Chaffetz said Russia remains a threat when it comes to intelligence and cyber-security, but thinks people should be even more concerned about the vulnerabilities within the FBI — especially considering how easy it would have been for Strzok to have been blackmailed. (RELATED: Jason Chaffetz Calls For Unmasking Of FBI Agents)
“Russia and some of the others, some of the nefarious characters out there on the world stage want to penetrate into the counter intelligence and the operations within the United States. That’s been going on for decades,” Chaffetz said.
“What is concerning about what happened with the Peter Strzok testimony is, a lot of people serious about fixing the FBI want to understand how is it that Peter Strzok had to many vulnerabilities that would make him susceptible to penetration by these nefarious actors?”
“Misuse of his telephone. Using it in insecure places. The sloppiness with which he’s sending tens of thousands of texts. He has some real issues in his personal life that make him susceptible to potentially being manipulated,” Chaffetz continued. “So, those are really deep concerns. Why weren’t there any warning bells going off within the FBI?”
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Chaffetz asked how someone like Strzok could have stayed in power for so long without being dealt with by his superiors and said he should have lost his security clearance before any of this even happened.
“How did this person stay as the top counter intelligence person in that position for so long? That is a core issue,” he continued. “I think if you just look at the basic tenets of somebody that you need who’s heading up counter intelligence for the FBI, what would make that person vulnerable? If he was having issues in his personal life. If he was having an affair. If he was carrying electronics that weren’t secure. Was he sloppy in using GPS?”
“How does this person continue to have a security clearance?” Chaffetz concluded. “If you don’t have a security clearance, you don’t have a job at the FBI.”
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