Lisa Page admitted Obama DOJ ordered stand-down on Clinton email prosecution, GOP rep says
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
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, who were romantically involved, 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.”
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Here is the confirmation (from the horses mouth) on what any reasonable person already knew
Well, well, well. What a surprise ... not!
How is it that a failed Kenyan President like Obama can order the FBI to stand down while God's own greatest President ever Trump can't seem to pull it off?
race is off topic!!!
Kenyan is not a race.
Wow so much right wing bullshit.
I wonder what W alter Cronkite would have said....
He would have taken a deep breathe and said "about 20 minutes ago the FBI attempted a coup"....
Kick the republicans out of office would be his advice
Personally, I think that if he saw what was happening these days in the USA, he would have tearfully said: "Oh...the humanity" (imitating radio announced Morrison on viewing the Hindenburg disaster).
the only thing that stands out in this is
"if there is somebody on his team who wittingly or unwittingly is working with the Russians, that is super serious.”
Yet all of you farr righties can't or didn't, purposely or not, fricken see it.
R u Ostriches, or R u Ckickens, chicken frickenseeitz not ...?
The George W Bush DOJ could have wondered the same thing about President-elect Obama's team contacting Iranian officials, but to their credit never crossed that line!
orange you proud... You can't grow a pear, and compear it to an
Apple of your ire, as your souls sole desire, is on display,
and to me, it looks kinda, fruity pebbles thrown in bullet proof glass houses, don't mean a damn damn , or is it Bam Bam cause he is of the Rubles , and when Flynt throws his Stones,, n 2 cents in, maybe
you'll see a Manaforte get pardoned but Y ?
Paul Manafort (not Manaforte) was the closest thing Mueller had to some kind of interaction between the Trump campaign and Russia, thus the Mueller team went after him with all guns blazing, trying to put him in prison for the rest of his life and all they could come up with was "tax fraud" and "an agent of the Ukraine".
After all that investigating!
By Trump haters!
And everyone knows it! Game over!
y do you have two sets of standards ?
Hillary should be arrested for passing gas
Trump should be praised for , you must have heard,
catching up and passing lil' kim some Mustard Gas, as he relishes those buns, little kim keeps warm, by nuking them, and lovin him, long time!
.
Hillary is so much cleaner than this Weiner, hot dawgin as a citizen senior', surrounded buy Mexican bought Walls, believed by bar b qued brainless without the balls, peep holes unables to see that the turnin of the tables doesn't open more doors,
only creates more unsuspecting whores,
getting fuked over for the money, they were fuced over
FORE
playing through !
Manafort? I think you have your wires crossed. He is facing sentencing in US District Court in Washington DC, right now as a matter of fact
Something tells me you were a fan of Adam Sandler's "Opera Singer" on SNL, am I correct?
not familiar, but i'll check out
I think you'll like it
Touche! I forgot that there was an effort to counter any possible pardon. Shame on Cyrus R. Vance
Thanks to the American people!
Manaforte's lawyers, Trump, their audience of one, knows that there is no collusion...???????????????
WTF r they saying, was Manaforte ever even charged with collusion ???
WTF is collusion anyway ? Another made up Trump word, as Trump has consistently proven, his word is always made up.
Conspiracy has already been proven by Trump himself, but, one has to wonder, why the hell are Manaforte's layers mntioning crims their traitorous client, was never ever even accused of ...?
please enlighten oh defenders of the indefensibull shitter , also known as the POS POTUS
Oh, then where are the charges or the impeachment proceedings? Yup, Trump gave himself up!/Sar
That is the only reason for the indictments in New York, so Trump cannot pardon him if found guilty. Hopefully if he is found guilty, he will appeal to an appeals court and they will see that it is actually double jeopardy, disguising these charges as the same he was convicted on but as civil charges.
Oh good. I sure hope somebody will let us know when he is found guilty in a court of law and convicted...
So tax fraud, foreign agent (who LIED), money laundering, giving RUSSIANS valuable political information along with obstruction, lying under oath, witness tampering, none of that is important? Aren't you part of a party that considers crimes by everybody else earthshatteringly massive? Any mistake one makes is ones own fault, so deal with the consequences? What kind of fricken values do conservative have, anyway? None that we can see.
oops, that is incorrect. Different crimes.
The prosecutors told the FBI it was not a winnable case. Big deal.
I truly feel sorry for people who are in thrall to right wing media. The ignorance becomes boundless.
James Baker the FBI's chief legal counsel disagreed. He had to be persuaded that there was nothing to prosecute:
Although in the end that may have been the case, we now are learning that Comey’s top lawyer, then-FBI General Counsel James Baker, initially believed Clinton deserved to face criminal charges, but was talked out of it “pretty late in the process.”
FOX Noise and, a Republican Representatives word that this is the testimony Page gave......yep, that's believable, NOT.
is that a selfie ?
That is what comment #7 is all about
you forgot to ad the 'la..la...la...la..la' to it.
manaforte sentenced to 7.5 years,
yea, nothing to see here.
And what about Tony Podesta?
But, but, but, that's okay because he's a republican and a trump kiss ass
So where does Mueller go from here?
Why does he have to go anywhere, we still don't know what he has. Patience is a virtue. Now tell how many years Ken Starr investigated, how many years of Benghazi investigations.
Let's see. there was no criminal predicate for the investigation which is over two years old, preceded by an FBI counter intelligence investigation which began in July of 2016 with fraudulent FISA warrants, leaking, unmasking and spying on American citizens. We have convictions of individuals who briefly had something to do with the Trump campaign on "crimes" mostly involving perjury involving FBI interviews, yet nothing to do with Russia. And you say Mueller need not go anywhere in particular?
Now tell how many years Ken Starr investigated, how many years of Benghazi investigations.
Is this retaliation?
Of course it's not, my point is these investigations take time and republicans didn't bitch, moan, complain, and cry fake news when those investigations were going on now did they, but they think Mueller should be done by now, and it's only because it's trump
They don't just take time, they can stifle an administration and it seems that may be all that this one is about at this point.
that is a Lie
Baloney
Really? Let's see who is lying! Which of those connected to the Trump campaign was convicted of conspiracy with Russia?
Baloney is not an argument. Maybe you could make one
Right out of the GOP playbook.
At least the Whitewater investigation was based on a CRIME. An investigation in which Hillary first learned the importance of evidence disappearing!
No? Don't you remember the evidence that magically appeared after the statute of limitations ran out?
you may wish to wait for ALL of the evidence to come out, or to you, KNOWING ALL OF THE FACTS
would be silly, when it comes to making
AN INFORMED DECISION
. "
We have convictions of individuals who briefly had something to do with the Trump campaign on "crimes" mostly involving perjury involving FBI interviews, yet nothing to do with Russia "
.
" nothing to do with Russia "
How the Hell can you say that with a straight face ? or are you wearing a Hillary mask, as Trump would n could attest to, if there was a test Trump could pass
I'll take that as an "I don't have an answer".
I rest my case, your'e honor
Um-hum:
"Conveniently for Hillary, a box of billing records mysteriously disappeared. For nearly two years, Starr and his investigators tried to get their hands on the records with searches and subpoenas.
In early January of 1996, the statutory clock ran out precluding civil lawsuits against professionals offering fraudulent advice to cover tracks. That same day, the Resolution Trust Corporation, charged with bailing out the savings and loan industry, shut down. One of its final acts of business was to announce a decision, “not to bring a civil lawsuit against the President or First Lady for the losses that the Whitewater land venture caused Madison.”
Four days later a box containing Hillary’s treasured billing records related to Madison and Castle Grande was “discovered” in a white house storage room."
Those papers did more White House travelling than Monica Lewinsky
The truth stings for a bit, but it's not fatal.
Try this one....
Seems like they just changed the URL pointing to it....
Manaforte gave hundreds of pages of electorial tracking to a Russian oligarch, who is tied to Putin , as all oligarchs of Russia are.
,
but the HEAD OF TRUMPS CAMPAIGN giving all of this VITAL INFORMATION to someone from RUSSIA, somehow Proves to you,
there is no proof of Russian collusion
sorry Vic, that maks absolutely no sense
Wow! That trivia constitutes collusion?
I have some good news for ya....the New York DA just issued a fresh indictment against Manafort. There you are!
Now no pardon
I'm sorry if you believe that but then again it doesn't surprise me.
I have numerous friends that would normally vote Democrat that took a pass on Hillaryious Hillary just because they were not blinded by partisan politics and seen her for the corrupt entitled Bitch she is. #MYTURN
I wonder If Kamila Harris can prostitute herself into a presidential run...….I doubt it.
My best guess is, Roger Stone and, the Trump kids since the kids run his business right now. Although he may take Roger Stone himself and, let the SDNY and, the NY state attorney's office handle the kids and, the Trump Organization.
WHY THE FUCK IS ANY OF THIS BEING DISCUSSED !
Trump is POTUS
People very close and that at one time surrounded him, are dropping, and going to JAIL
WTF is THIS being even DISGUSTED
is what i am with Trump Defenders, as they are most
OFFENSIVE
TO N E THINKING PEOPLES
.
put a sock in the crock of SHIT ALREADY
.
you people defending Trump should be ashamed you feel not worthy of shame
either completely ignorant, or completely ignorant pretending not to be ignorant completely.
There is NOTHING honest to gain by defending this LIAR in CHIEF, who somehow? surrounded himself with CRIMINALS and LIARS about all things RUSSIAN
.
STop with the StUPID Already
You answered your own question. Panicked conservatives are desperately trying to fling as much poo as they can to obfuscate the fact that we have a criminal mob boss destroying America from within the oval office.
no
it could only be priority #1 , and by just a really vague coincidence, be sprung and discussed while Manaforte is sentenced, a total of 7.5 years for "nothing" yet again.
oh what an unjustified state, we refuse to unite in
and how they attempt to distract, like Manafortes lawyers, and their audience of one
Maybe, but no charges yet.
Not nearly discrete enough to be a mob boss.
What, exactly, has been destroyed? Do tell. Regale us all with how your life is so tragically worse since the inauguration of Donald Trump.
According to most libs, 2 reasons....
1. He liiiiiieessss...and...
2. He's not Hillary
That's it..
No kidding.
All they have I guess.
trump sucks so Obama had to be guilty of something...
That is a link to a Bing News search on Lisa Page.
Virtually every one of the listed news sites featuring this story is conservative or a right wing blog. There is nothing with this spin in the "regular" media.
What this tells us is that what Page revealed was not outside of ordinary procedure at all. If it was it damn sure would have been revealed prior to nine months after she gave the testimony.
Right wingers , please stop banging your heads against the wall. It is painful to watch.
Moments after the term was handed down, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced a fresh indictment of Manafort on state charges including mortgage fraud. The case puts the ailing 69-year-old lobbyist who served as Trump's campaign chairman for three months during the tumultuous 2016 election in further legal jeopardy.
LOVE IT
he fux over their country,
and Trump and defenders cheer
for he, and his convictions ?
Clinton, Clinton, Clinton,,,Obama, Obama, Obama!
Ppppppphhhhhhtttttttttt
Agweeed!
You know....when early pictures of Lisa Page came out, I thought...ugh...typical of many liberal women. Ugly on the inside and out. Now, since recent video and pictures have come out, I realize she has a bit of attractiveness to her, a rarity of the world of liberalism.
Now, before you libs go batshit crazy over my comment, think about what you incessantly post about Sarah Sanders, Sarah Palin, shit...pretty much EVERY conservative woman.
Well gee, I wonder why Rep. Ratcliffe and his GOP cohorts didn't call in David Laufman to testify about his part in deciding not to charge Clinton.
BTW, here is the first response from Page about the question of gross negligence:
Thanks to all for keeping it civil. Most of all a thank you to Lisa Page for her honesty at long last.