Strzok was at the center of a number of white-hot cases over his career and would have had ample material for a book even before his path crossed with that of Donald J. Trump.
That, however, is what fate had in store, and for as much as Strzok and his publisher may want this book to be about Trump or the counterintelligence business, it clearly can't avoid being about him.
Can a gumshoe privately contemptuous of the Republican politician he's investigating and who's violating his marital vows and leaving evidence of the foregoing on a U.S. government-issued electronic device also work by the book in his capacity as a top FBI investigator?
No, Trump and his supporters have fulminated, and they've sought to cast Strzok and Page as the faces of an ostensible conspiracy within officialdom out to get Trump.
One outside adviser to the president’s 2020 campaign said the goal is to equip Trump with ways in which he can box in Biden on policy matters by forcing him to either disavow his party’s most controversial positions on immigration, taxes, abortion or the "Green New Deal," a move that would enrage his progressive base, or alternatively, force him to embrace positions that alienate moderate voters and would fit into the Trump campaign’s “radical leftist” narrative about him. Trump will also go after Biden’s 47-year record in Washington in the Senate and as vice president.
Well, the 2020 national political conventions are over.
The Republicans wrapped up Thursday night, and there was a lot to digest, not least a clearer sense of what the post-Labor Day sprint is going to look and sound like.
Even before the Republican National Convention began, government ethics experts warned that hosting campaign events from the White House South Lawn and the Rose Garden could violate federal ethics law.
But in the convention's first two days, Trump has gone even further — wielding the powers of his office and the federal government to promote his reelection campaign.
As part of Tuesday night's prime-time convention programming, Trump granted a presidential pardon from the White House. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared from Jerusalem, where he was on official state business, to make a campaign speech with the Old City as backdrop. First lady Melania Trump delivered a speech from the White House Rose Garden. And acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf performed a naturalization ceremony on television as Trump looked on.
Steve Bannon, President Trump's former political adviser, has been arrested alongside three other people in connection with an online fundraising scheme that federal prosecutors in New York say was responsible for defrauding hundreds of thousands of people.
Bannon and the three other defendants are alleged to have orchestrated a scheme around an online crowdfunding campaign called "We Build the Wall," which has raised over $25 million, according to prosecutors. The campaign was advertised as an effort to build portions of the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and support maintenance operations.
Joe Biden currently has a robust lead in polls. If the election were held today, he might even win in a landslide, carrying not only traditional swing states such as Florida and Pennsylvania but potentially adding new states such as Georgia and Texas to the Democratic coalition.
But the election is not being held today. While the polls have been stable so far this year, it’s still only August. The debates and the conventions have yet to occur. Biden only named his running mate yesterday. And the campaign is being conducted amidst a pandemic the likes of which the United States has not seen in more than 100 years, which is also causing an unprecedented and volatile economy.