Anti-Trump FBI agent Peter Strzok’s lawyer hedged Tuesday on whether his client would comply with a subpoena to testify publicly before two House committees next week, charging “this is not a search for the truth.”
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, lawyer Aitan Goelman vowed Strzok “will testify publicly soon, somewhere, sometime."
“We just got this subpoena today, so I don't know whether or not we are going to be testifying next Tuesday in front of these two particular house subcommittees… because we have come to the conclusion -- we have been forced to come to the conclusion — that this is not a search for truth.”
“It is a chance for Republican members of the House to preen and posture before their most radical conspiracy-minded constituents,” he said, adding: “If you have a committee that actually wants to find out facts, that wants to find out the truth, you might actually have an interest. But from our experience with the committee thus far, it is obvious that they don't want the truth.”
In a letter last Friday to the Judiciary Committee staff, Goelman also complained that Republicans have been “grandstanding” and “twisting” his answers from last week’s closed-door interview.
On Tuesday night, Goelman told Cuomo that Strzok has “been caricatured and misdescribed and accused by the president of treason and of being a sick loser, and on Fox News they talk about him as the center of this anti-Trump cabal that was determined to throw the election against Trump.
“None of this has a shred of truth, and Pete has been silent. He's been cooperating with the Inspector General. He's been doing what he's supposed to, and now he wants a chance to actually talk to the American people. So when we heard that these two committees along with other committees were interested in talking to Pete, I reached out to them.”
But he said the committees wouldn’t agree to release the transcripts of the hearing.
“So we came in, and he testified. And what really kills me is the Republicans, the committee, the first thing they tell us in there is this is confidential…[and] not just leaked. Republican members during breaks were dashing out to talk to the media, to tell them, ‘this guy, he's not answering questions.’”
Goelem added that Strzok is “ready, willing, and able to answer questions about the texts” with FBI lawyer and girlfriend Lisa Page.
“The problem with this forum is that, I mean, I don't know if you watched” the testimony of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, he told Cuomo.
“So the way they treated those two guys, you know, these lifelong Republicans, not letting them answer a question, filibustering, that is nothing compared to the way they treated Pete Strzok. So it does not seem to be like a search for truth.”