Despite a subpoena demanding her presence, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page (shown) refused to meet Wednesday with the House Committees on Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform. Page’s refusal was announced late Tuesday by her attorney Amy Jeffress.
Page’s paramour, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, is currently testifying before Congress. The two exchanged more than 50,000 text messages during the 2016 presidential campaign, many of them extremely critical of current president Donald Trump. In one particularly damning exchange, it is reported that Page asked whether Trump would actually become president, Strzok replied, “No. No, he won’t. We’ll stop it.”
Was Strzok hinting at a conspiracy to derail the Trump presidency, or was he merely offering his distraught lover some empty solace? Part of finding that out will include testimony from Page. Page left the FBI in May of this year. Strzok remained employed there until June when he was escorted from FBI premises.
The House committees are seeking Page’s input as to whether an organizational bias against Donald Trump existed at the FBI. Both Page and Strzok worked on the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and later on the Trump/Russia collusion probe headed by special counsel Robert Mueller. Both were removed from the Mueller investigation when the text messages became public.
On Tuesday, Jeffress said that Page was not given enough time to prepare for the interview, and said that she had asked for an interview at a later date. “The committees have not honored this request,” Jeffress said. “As a result, Lisa is not going to appear for an interview at this time.”
House Judiciary Chairman Robert Goodlatte (R-Va.) countered, “It appears that Lisa Page has something to hide. She has known for months that the House Judiciary Committee has sought her testimony as part of our joint investigation with the Oversight Committee into decisions made by the Justice Department in 2016 and she has no excuse for her failure to appear.” Goodlatte added that his committee will use “all tools at our disposal” to obtain the interview.
Representative Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a member of both committees, tweeted, “Lisa Page ignores congressional subpoena, once again showing the double standard. One set of rules for regular Americans, a different set for the Swamp!”
Ultimately, the full House could vote to hold Page in contempt of Congress, should she fail to appear. If she is convicted, she could face a fine and up to 12 months of jail time. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan offered Goodlatte his full support, saying that the House will “do what we need to do to protect this branch of government.” Ryan added, “A subpoena to testify before Congress is not optional, it’s mandatory.”
A statement released by Jeffress on Wednesday claimed that Page had volunteered to appear before both committees later this month but wished to have more clarification about what type of questions would be asked of her. Jeffress had also been seeking certain FBI documents which Congress possessed but she hadn’t had a chance to review. In the statement, Jeffress also decried what she called “bullying tactics” used by Congress to get Page to appear, calling them “unnecessary.”
The president took time out of his diplomatic trip to tweet on the subject: “How can the Rigged Witch Hunt proceed when it was started, influenced and worked on, for an extended period of time, by former FBI Agent/Lover Peter Strzok? Read his hate filled and totally biased Emails and the answer is clear!”
The Deep State is being forced to play some serious defense in these investigations. The text messages between Strzok and Page, along with her refusal to testify to this point, hint at knowledge of a conspiracy among some members of the FBI to first allow Hillary Clinton to skate on her illegal e-mail server and then to attempt to destroy the Trump presidency.
But the truth continues to slowly trickle out, despite the best efforts of the Swamp denizens to keep their actions hidden.
Photo: AP Images
