Peter Strzok’s memoir “Compromised – Counterintelligence And The Threat of Donald J. Trump” offers a fascinating review of the investigation into allegations of Russian influence on President-Elect Donald J. Trump and the Hillary Clinton email controversy.
Electing our leaders in democratic, fair processes is a topic I greatly care about. Understanding the mechanics of intelligence operations and information control is a topic I frequently read about. So I was eager to read more about the intelligence work that took place when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump faced off for a historic election.
Peter Strzok is a career law enforcement officer having served as the FBI’s Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence. There is no doubt about his integrity, service, and devotion to the agency. Yet his personal communications indicated otherwise. Unfortunately, his memoir “Compromised” is detailed regarding Trump, but silent regarding his motives. The book is loosely broken into chronological events. While it isn’t written chronologically per se, the reader can trace back steps to the investigation into Hillary Clinton, the ill-advised commentary of former FBI Director James Comey, and subsequently the election of Trump. When it comes to telling a compelling narrative to explain the individual steps necessary in an intelligence investigation of this magnitude, I missed clear language, process steps, and clarity to help readers understand the process. Why did the FBI do what it did? Instead, Strzok tells his own subjective story, which greatly diminishes the learning value of this read and quickly becomes a dull endeavor.
Altogether, it was a mediocre yet well-written read that didn’t add any new information to the already dense coverage of the events. Moreover, I can’t quite be sure of the neutrality of this memoir given the author’s personal actions which found no mention in the entire book.