Trump Slams Lisa Page's Pity Party
- par Thibaud Popelin
- dans Monde
- — Déc 3, 2019
President Trump hit back Monday after former Federal Bureau of Investigation lawyer Lisa Page went to The Daily Beast to break her silence over the controversy involving her infamous Trump-bashing text messages with ex-special agent Peter Strzok.
"When Lisa Page, the lover of Peter Strzok, talks about being "crushed, ' and how innocent she is, ask her to read Peter's 'Insurance Policy" text, to her, just in case Hillary loses".
Page kept a low profile while she was the target of Trump's tweets but was spurred to speak out after the rally, during which Trump screamed out, "I love you, Lisa!"
Now, almost two years later, Page has finally broken her silence, speaking with the Daily Beast in an interview published Sunday, where she responded to the president's personal criticism and cast herself as a victim. Page and Strzok were also involved in the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information and served on the special counsel's team. "But a special counsel official who reviewed Strzok's iPhone before it was reset found it contained no substantive messages".
She said that she is anxious if someone makes eye contact with her on public transport, and that she tries to steer clear of anybody wearing a MAGA hat, to reduce her chances of coming into conflict with a Trump supporter, pointing out that it is "very intimidating because he's still the president of the United States". It appears that the report will conclude that Federal Bureau of Investigation lawyer Kevin Clinesmith altered a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act document linked to the agency's wiretapping of Carter Page, a Trump campaign associate. "I'm someone who's always in my head anyway-so now otherwise normal interactions take on a different meaning". And when the President accuses you of treason by name, despite the fact that I know there's no fathomable way that I have committed any crime at all, let alone treason, he's still somebody in a position to actually do something about that. To try to further destroy my life. "It never goes away or stops, even when he's not publicly attacking me", she despaired.
"We were very deliberate and conservative about who we first opened on because we recognized how sensitive a situation it was", Page told The Daily Beast.
"But I also understand why she didn't do it sooner because it is intimidating until it's not intimidating".
"I'm not asking you to edit it this weekend, I just wanted to send it to you, and hopefully it doesn't need much more editing".
"Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel's back", she told The Daily Beast.
"It's nearly impossible to describe", she told the Daily Beast, reflecting on the President's lingering attacks. That performance, Page said, was what motivated her to speak to the press. "But having an opinion and sharing that opinion publicly or privately with another person is squarely within the permissible bounds of the Hatch Act. So I'm really not all that anxious about it". After his exchanges with Page were published, Strzok was removed from the Mueller investigation, then fired by the bureau.
Trump and Republicans have seized on the texts as evidence of political bias.
It's not entirely certain what prompted the edits, but Flynn's lawyers suggest the impetus was news reporting that day alleging Flynn discussed sanctions with Ambassador Kislyak, contrary to what Vice President Mike Pence had asserted previously - and a comparison of the 302 before and after Page's edits seems to strongly support this contention.
In one text, Ms Page called then-candidate Trump "a loathsome human", and Mr Strzok labelled him "an idiot".
Media captionTrump impersonates ex-FBI agent's messages with lawyer Lisa Page What did Lisa Page say?