Fake News: Peter Strzok Did NOT Call Trump a Russian Asset And An Unhinged Madman on Twitter

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Fake News: Peter Strzok Did NOT Call Trump a Russian Asset And An Unhinged Madman on Twitter

Did recently fired FBI-agent Peter Strzok call President Trump a dictator, a Russian asset and an unhinged madman on Twitter? No, that's not true: the tweet in question was published by a parody account mimicking the recently created real Twitter account of Strzok.

The quote originated from a tweet published on August 13, 2018 from an account named "@notpeterstrzok" (archived here) which read:

"I have been fired for expressing my personal opinion in private texts about a dictator that history will soon deem not only a Russian asset but an unhinged madman threatening the sovereignty of the United States of America."

As long as it is still up, here is the tweet in question:

That account's bio reads:

Proud American. Former FBI agent. Army veteran. Parody account - paying tribute to Peter Strzok.

So it didn't come from Strzok's real Twitter account. Fox News reported he set one up but it was named @petestrzok:

Fired FBI agent Peter Strzok sets up anti-Trump Twitter account, GoFundMe page seeking $150G

Fired FBI agent Peter Strzok took his anti-Trump rhetoric public on Monday, setting up a defiant Twitter account and a GoFundMe page seeking to raise $150,000 to cover his "legal costs and lost income."

On that Twitter account, Strzok only published this tweet so far:

Don't get taken in by fake accounts!

Updates:

  • 2018-08-13T21:49:18Z 2018-08-13T21:49:18Z
  • 2018-08-13T21:43:10Z 2018-08-13T21:43:10Z
    The account now seems to have been renamed as @notpeterstrzok

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  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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