美国国家公共电台 NPR Embattled FBI Agent Peter Strzok Clashes With GOP In Raucous Hearing

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

Conservatives who accuse the FBI of bias¹ have pointed² fingers at one special agent in particular - Peter Strzok. Well, today Strzok defended himself before Congress. He admitted that he did send highly political text messages while working on two big cases in 2016. But he said he always heeded⁴ his obligation to act impartially⁵.

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PETER STRZOK: Let me be clear unequivocally and under oath not once in my 26 years of defending our nation did my personal opinions impact any official action I took. This is true for the Clinton email investigation⁶, for the investigation into Russian interference and for every other investigation I've worked on. It is not who I am, and it is not something I would ever do, period.

KELLY: OK. Well, our own Tim Mak was covering this hearing before the House judiciary and oversight⁷ committees, and he's with me now. Hey, Tim.

TIM MAK, BYLINE⁸: Hey there.

KELLY: So why were lawmakers wanting to hear from Strzok today?

MAK: So he was there because the Justice Department's internal watchdog discovered a number of texts that he sent to another important FBI official, a lawyer named Lisa Page. And this was back in 2016. They talked about all sorts of things like Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, the former attorney general Eric Holder⁹ and, most famously, Donald Trump¹⁰. And they weren't fans of Trump.

And so Strzok was taken off the Russia case when these texts were discovered. Republicans say that Strzok was biased¹¹ against Trump from the very beginning and was biased in favor of Clinton. So he was trying to hurt Trump and help Clinton. He said essentially¹² no. He said he's got political opinions like everyone else, but essentially, he kept them to himself. He didn't bring them into his work.

KELLY: Were you able to get a read on whether lawmakers bought this?

MAK: Well, it depends which lawmaker we're talking about. Republicans definitely did not buy it. Congressman¹³ Ted³ Poe said, I don't believe you. Other folks were basically saying that Strzok clearly couldn't be honest about these cases based on his personal bias. And Congressman Trey Gowdy, another Republican, he said it was just too dangerous for law enforcement officials to prejudge the people they were investigating before those investigations¹⁴ had even gotten started. So you've got a lot of skepticism on the Republican side.

KELLY: And what about the Democrats¹⁶? Did it sound as though they believed him?

MAK: Well, they tried to draw attention to what they thought should be the real focus, which is Russia's attack on the election. They said we should be having hearings about all sorts of things unrelated to this personal and specific case. They also said, hey, why aren't we having hearings and investigations into the separation of families at the border? And Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York, he's also a Democrat¹⁵. He said, look; if Strzok was really trying to hurt Trump's campaign, he would have done something to hurt Trump's campaign, which was - one possibility could have been to reveal that there was an FBI investigation while the campaign was still underway. And that never happened.

KELLY: Now, it sounds like there are still a lot of unanswered questions. Did lawmakers give any indication today of where they want to take this next?

MAK: Well, look; I mean, the story just isn't going to go away. Republicans have been looking for some reasons to say, hey, there's a bias at the heart of this investigation into possible Trump-Russia ties. They have been in public attacking the Justice Department and the FBI for months, saying that there is political bias in the agency and in the bureau. And Republicans have kind of made an effort to raise doubts about the special counsel investigation writ¹⁷ large.

KELLY: All right, NPR's Tim Mak, thanks very much for tracking the story.

MAK: Thanks a lot.

1 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

2 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

3 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

4 heeded   

v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的过去式和过去分词 )；变平，使（某物）变平( flatten的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She countered that her advice had not been heeded. 她反驳说她的建议未被重视。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I heeded my doctor's advice and stopped smoking. 我听从医生的劝告，把烟戒了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 impartially   

adv.公平地，无私地

参考例句：

• Employers must consider all candidates impartially and without bias. 雇主必须公平而毫无成见地考虑所有求职者。
• We hope that they're going to administer justice impartially. 我们希望他们能主持正义，不偏不倚。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

10 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

11 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

12 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

13 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

14 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

15 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

16 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 writ   

n.命令状，书面命令

参考例句：

• This is a copy of a writ I received this morning.这是今早我收到的书面命令副本。
• You shouldn't treat the newspapers as if they were Holy Writ. 你不应该把报上说的话奉若神明。