Commentary: I was warned years ago that anything I send or receive over my work email could eventually be made public if I or the newspaper were ever sued.
It’s a warning I have tried to heed. But, I have no doubt that if every message I have sent or received from my work phone and email address were to be made public, there would be some that would make me cringe. Undoubtedly, some would show bias. Undeniably, there would be snark and profanity.
Which brings me to Thursday’s U.S. House hearing on the emails of FBI agent Peter Strzok. For those who didn’t get a chance to see it, it was like watching a pack of small terriers fighting over which one gets to make love to a football.
Not that I watched the whole nine-hour affair. I caught about an hour before work and another hour at lunch. It had already wrapped up by the time I got home in the evening, and they were playing the highlights, including Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, telling Strzok, a 22-year veteran of the FBI, that his previous career as a dentist has made him an expert in body language, giving him an insight into Strzok’s obvious bias that others might miss. Or Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, asking Strzok if he had a smirk on his face when he lied to his wife about his extra-marital affair. That prompted Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-New Jersey, to tell Gohmert, “You need your medication.”
But my favorite part came after the very first question when Strzok explained that he had been told by the FBI that he couldn’t answer questions involving the ongoing investigation.
Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Virginia, then launched into his well-rehearsed effort to hold Strzok in contempt of Congress, only to be cut off at every turn by Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler, R-NY, calling for a “point of order.” A frustrated Goodlatte would tell Nadler he couldn’t do that, and only to have somebody whisper in his ear that, yes he could. It happened over and over.
The best comedy is often unintentional and arrives with its twin brother, tragedy. There were parts of Thursday’s congressional hearing that were by far the funniest thing on TV that day. But the sum effect of it all was tragic, at least for those with any remaining respect for our tattered institutions.
For those unaware of Strozk (and I can’t tell you how much I envy your ignorance), he was a high-level FBI officer cheating on his wife with a co-worker at the agency named Lisa Page at the same time he was involved with investigations of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He and Page exchanged emails expressing negative, often profane, views of Trump, and a desire that he not be elected, or impeached if he was.
I suspect that if we could look at every email or text message sent during the first week of November, 2016, we would find a lot of that, including among some GOP members of the House who are now defending Trump. But, Strzok is not just anybody. His position demanded that he be held to higher standards. And when he fell short, he was removed from the investigation.
The Strzok story is a cautionary tale about keeping private messages on private servers. Attempts to turn it into something more than that by Republicans in Congress turned comical Thursday.