Former FBI agent Peter Strzok told NBC’s Chuck Todd Sunday that he still believes President Trump to be “compromised by the Russians...I believed at the time in 2016 and I continue to believe that Donald Trump is compromised by the Russians,” Strzok said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And when I say that I mean that they hold leverage over him that makes him incapable of placing the national interest, the national security ahead of his own.”

“One of the largest ways that people in foreign governments gain leverage, certainly in the case of the president, is through financial entanglements,” he added. “And I think when you take a look at the Trump financial enterprise, particularly its relationship with Russian, with Russian monies and potentially those related to organized crime and other elements, that those interactions have placed him in a position where the Russians have leverage over him and are able to influence his actions.”

Todd also questioned Strzok about the text messages between himself and FBI attorney Lisa Page, with whom he had an affair. Todd asked Strzok whether he blamed himself for “putt[ing] [himself] in a compromising position” or whether he believed he was treated unfairly.

“I certainly regret sending the text messages that were absolutely weaponized and used to bludgeon the work of the FBI, the work of the special counsel, I'll always regret that,” Strzok conceded.

However, he claimed that “the way that those were weaponized” was part of an ongoing pattern of the Trump administration purging dissenters.

“Whether it is in the impeachment hearings with regard to Ukraine, the whistleblower, or anybody in any number of federal government agencies - if somebody dares speak the truth about this administration, this administration has shown no boundaries in going after people in ways that frankly is shocking, are shocking and are inappropriate,” he said.

Nancy Pelosi has been photographed in a San Francisco hair salon without a face covering, breaking the city’s coronavirus prevention rules. Security camera footage, which was obtained by Fox News, shows the Democratic House speaker without a mask on her face as she walked through the salon. Salons in San Francisco have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic, with limited outdoor operations beginning only on Tuesday.

The footage, showing Pelosi walking through the eSalon with a face mask around her neck, was filmed during an appointment on Monday.

Pelosi has regularly told US citizens to wear masks and follow the guidelines intended to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The salon’s owner, Erica Kious, said one of her hairstylists who rented a chair at the business had opened it especially for Pelosi’s appointment.

“It was a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can’t work,” Kious told Fox News.

“We have been shut down for so long, not just me, but most of the small businesses and I just can’t – it’s a feeling – a feeling of being deflated, helpless and honestly beaten down,” she added.

Kious said that according to her interpretation of the coronavirus safety precautions blow-drying hair was prohibited for salons.

She added: “I have been fighting for six months for a business that took me 12 years to build to reopen,” she said. “I am a single mom, I have two small children, and I have no income.

“We’re supposed to look up to this woman, right? It is just disturbing.”

A spokesman for Pelosi, Drew Hammill, responded that the Californian congresswoman had not realised she was breaking her home city’s virus prevention rules.

“This business offered for the speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business,” he said, adding: “The speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.”

Nancy Pelosi has claimed to have been “set up”, after she was photographed in a San Francisco hair salon without a face covering, breaking the city’s coronavirus prevention rules.

“I take responsibility for trusting the word of the neighborhood salon that I’ve been to many times,” the House speaker said on Wednesday afternoon, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. “It was a setup, and I take responsibility for falling for a setup.”