Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page
admitted under questioning from Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe
last summer that "the FBI was ordered by the Obama DOJ not to consider
charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence
in the handling of classified information," the congressman alleged in a
social media post late Tuesday, citing a newly unearthed transcript of Page's closed-door testimony.
Page and since-fired FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok exchanged numerous anti-Trump text messages
in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, and Republicans have
long accused the bureau of political bias. But Page's testimony was
perhaps the most salient evidence yet that the Justice Department
improperly interfered with the FBI's supposedly independent conclusions
on Clinton's criminal culpability, Ratcliffe alleged.
"So let me if I can, I know I’m testing your memory," Ratcliffe began as he questioned Page under oath, according to a transcript excerpt he posted on Twitter. "But
when you say advice you got from the Department, you’re making it sound
like it was the Department that told you: You’re not going to charge
gross negligence because we’re the prosecutors and we’re telling you
we’re not going to —"
Page interrupted: "That is correct," as Ratcliffe finished his sentence, " -- bring a case based on that."
The
document dump was part of a major release by House Judiciary Committee
Republicans, who on Tuesday released hundreds of pages of transcripts
from last year's closed-door interview with Page, revealing new details
about the bureau's controversial internal discussions regarding an
“insurance policy” against then-candidate Donald Trump. Fox News has
previously reviewed portions of Page's testimony.
Page
also testified that the DOJ and FBI had "multiple conversations ...
about charging gross negligence," and the DOJ decided that the term was
"constitutionally vague" and "had either never been done or had only
been done once like 99 years ago," and so "they did not feel they could
sustain a charge."
Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page and fired FBI Special Agent Peter
Strzok exchanged anti-Trump text messages during their time at the
bureau.
(AP, File)
In July 2016, then-FBI
Director James Comey publicly announced at a bombshell press conference
that Clinton had been "extremely careless" in handling classified
information, but insisted that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a
case against her.
Federal
law states that "gross negligence" in handling the nation’s
intelligence can be punished criminally with prison time or fines, and
there is no requirement that defendants act intentionally or recklessly.
Originally
Comey accused the former secretary of state of being “grossly
negligent” in handling classified information in a draft dated May 2,
2016, but that was modified to claim that Clinton had merely been “extremely careless” in a draft dated June 10, 2016.
Comey
also said that "although there is evidence of potential violations of
the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, our
judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."
He
added that "prosecutors necessarily weigh a number of factors before
bringing charges," including "the strength of the evidence, especially
regarding intent."
Comey
took the unusual step of holding a press conference and announcing the
FBI's purportedly independent conclusions because then-Obama Attorney
General Loretta Lynch was spotted meeting secretly with former President Bill Clinton on an airport tarmac as the probe into Hillary Clinton, which Lynch was overseeing, continued.
Comey's
conclusion that "no reasonable prosecutor" would bring a case against
Clinton has become the subject of significant debate in recent weeks. It
was revealed last month that FBI's top lawyer in 2016 thought Hillary
Clinton and her team should have immediately realized they were
mishandling "highly classified" information based on the obviously
sensitive nature of the emails' contents sent through her private
server.
And he believed she should have been prosecuted until "pretty late" in the investigation, according to a transcript of his closed-door testimony before congressional committees last October.
Strzok
and Page were involved in the FBI’s initial counterintelligence
investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump
campaign associates during the 2016 election, and later served on
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
Among the texts between the
two was one concerning the so-called "insurance policy." During her
interview with the Judiciary Committee in July 2018, Page was questioned at length about that text
-- and essentially confirmed this referred to the Russia investigation
while explaining that officials were proceeding with caution, concerned
about the implications of the case while not wanting to go at "total
breakneck speed" and risk burning sources as they presumed Trump
wouldn't be elected anyway.
Further, she confirmed investigators
only had a "paucity" of evidence at the start. Comey, last December,
similarly acknowledged that when the FBI initiated its
counterintelligence probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign
officials and the Russian government in July 2016, investigators
"didn't know whether we had anything" and that "in fact, when I was
fired as director [in May 2017], I still didn't know whether there was
anything to it."
Then-Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., kicked off that
section of questioning by asking about the text sent from Strzok to Page
in August 2016 which read: “I want to believe the path you threw out in
Andy’s [McCabe's] office—that there’s no way he gets elected—but I’m
afraid we can’t take the risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the
unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
The former FBI lawyer
explained how the FBI was trying to strike a balance with the
investigation into the Trump campaign—which agents called “Crossfire Hurricane," in a nod to a Rolling Stones song.
“So,
upon the opening of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, we had a
number of discussions up through and including the Director regularly in
which we were trying to find an answer to the question, right, which
is, is there someone associated with the [Trump] campaign who is working
with the Russians in order to obtain damaging information about Hillary
Clinton,” Page said. “And given that it is August, we were very aware
of the speed and sensitivity that we needed to operate under.”
Page
continued that, “if the answer is this is a guy just being puffery at a
meeting with other people, great, then we don’t need to worry about
this, and we can all move on with our lives; if this is, in fact, the
Russians have coopted an individual with, you know, maybe wittingly or
unwittingly, that’s incredibly grave, and we need to know that as
quickly as possible.”
Page explained that the text message reflected their “continuing check-in” as to “how quickly to operate.”
“[W]e
don’t need to go at a total breakneck speed because so long as he
doesn’t become President, there isn’t the same threat to national
security, right,” Page explained, while saying that if Trump were not
elected president, the bureau would still investigate.
“But if he
becomes president, that totally changes the game because now he is the
President of the United States,” Page told lawmakers. “He’s going to
immediately start receiving classified briefings. He’s going to be
exposed to the most sensitive secrets imaginable. And if there is
somebody on his team who wittingly or unwittingly is working with the
Russians, that is super serious.”
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.