This is YUGE as President Trump would say. After Peter Strzok testified that people misinterpreted his texts, Lisa page testified that the texts meant exactly what they said according to Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe. Ratcliffe said she contradicted other parts of his testimony as well but did not specify what parts.
This means that Strzok lied to Congress and could face contempt charges and could finally lose the security clearance he already should have lost. Page could be angling for an immunity deal and if the proffer is right, Congress should offer it because she has inside knowledge of Strzok, McCabe, Priestap and the White House. Let the minnow go to catch the whales, so to speak.
No word yet on what she testified to on Tuesday.
Page has faced months of scrutiny over the text messages, which she exchanged with Peter Strzok, the former deputy chief of the FBI’s counterintelligence division.
The exchanges show a deep hostility to President Donald Trump at a time when the two officials were working on the FBI’s investigation into a possible Trump campaign collusion with the Russian government. Some of the texts show Strzok and Page cryptically discussing how to proceed with the investigation, which was opened on July 31, 2016.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok wrote to Page in an Aug. 15, 2016 text referring to then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
“It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40,” he added.
Page testified for two days behind closed doors about her influence on the FBI’s investigations into Russia and Hillary Clinton’s emails less than one week after Strzok.
Strozk denied that texts he exchanged with Page — particularly one promising they would “stop” Trump from becoming president — were indicative of bias that affected the investigations. However, Ratcliffe alleged that Page contradicted Strzok in her testimony and even admitted that the texts “mean exactly what they say.”
“There are differences in their testimony on many cases,” Ratcliffe said on Monday. “She admits that the text messages mean exactly what they say, as opposed to Agent Strzok, who thinks that we have all misinterpreted his own words on any text message that might be negative.”