Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer whose anti-Trump text messages raised suspicions of bias in the agency, claimed through her lawyer Wednesday that there is “no basis for claims” that she is hiding information from Congress and is still willing to testify, less than a day after she refused to testify in a House hearing.
Page, the ex-FBI lawyer whose extramarital affair with fellow FBI employee Peter Strzok was examined in a Justice Department watchdog report, was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee, but said Tuesday night she would not testify.
But Page’s attorney, Amy Jeffress, said Page is still willing to talk later this month, and said she didn’t appear Wednesday because the committee had not provided enough detail on the scope of lawmakers’ questions, and the FBI had not provided documents for her to review ahead of the testimony.
“She has offered to voluntarily appear before the committees later this month,” said Jeffress in a Wednesday statement. “I received a message from the Department of Justice after 11 p.m. last night that they have finally granted her request to review the relevant documents. We are working to arrange that process quickly so that we can move forward with her appearance before the Committees.”
Meanwhile, House Republicans have indicated they may be considering a contempt resolution against her. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said late Tuesday that Page was aware his panel wanted to interview her for months, and thus had “no excuse” for not appearing.
“It appears that Lisa Page has something to hide,” the Virginia Republican said. “We will use all tools at our disposal to obtain her testimony.”
Jeffress said Wednesday that “[t]here is no basis here is no basis for claims that Lisa has anything to hide or is unwilling to testify.”
“The record shows otherwise. Lisa has already cooperated with multiple investigations underway in Congress and at the Department of Justice. She provided more than 36 hours of testimony to DOJ’s Office of Inspector General and has cooperated fully with another congressional committee,” said Jeffress, describing the committees’ “bullying tactics” as “unnecessary.”
“We expect them to agree to another date so that Lisa can appear before the committees in the near future,” she added.
On Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said lawmakers “will do what we need to do” in response to Page.
“I am very disturbed by this,” Ryan said. “Congressional subpoenas for testimony are not optional.”
Page and Strzok were both part of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, and later were detailed to special counsel Robert Mueller’s team. The two were removed from the latter after Mueller became aware of text messages showing pro-Clinton, anti-Trump sentiments.
Strzok testified for 11 hours behind closed doors last month with the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, and will appear publicly before the two panels Thursday morning.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized Page and Strzok for bias in a lengthy report released in June.
In August 2016 — days after the investigation began into Russian interference in the election and any potential connection to Trump’s campaign — Strzok texted Page that “we’ll stop” Trump from making it to the White House.
“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page wrote to Strzok.
“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok responded.
Though the IG said he found no evidence that Strzok’s decision-making was skewed by his bias, he admitted he “did not have the confidence” that Strzok’s decision to prioritize the Russia investigation over the discovery of new Clinton emails on former New York congressman Anthony Weiner’s laptop was ”free from bias.”
However, Horowitz found that the decisions made were investigative judgment calls, not politically biased ones.
It is unclear if Strzok still is employed by the FBI, as he was demoted to the human resources division and was escorted from the bureau’s headquarters last month as part of an ongoing disciplinary investigation.
The IG did refer his findings on Page and Strzok to the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which recommends possible disciplinary measures. Page left the FBI earlier this year.
Trump has often critizied Page and Strzok on Twitter.
“I am on Air Force One flying to NATO and hear reports that the FBI lovers, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are getting cold feet on testifying about the Rigged Witch Hunt,” he tweeted Tuesday morning.
