Lisa Page claimed her text message to Peter Strzok where they vowed to stop President Trump did not refer to the FBI.
Page and Strzok, both former FBI employees, sent political text messages to each other while working on the investigation into Trump’s campaign. In one message, Strzok wrote, “We won’t let it happen,” when talking about Trump becoming president.
During an interview on MSNBC, Page claimed the “we” in Strzok’s message referred to “like-minded” voters, not the FBI as a whole.
“By ‘we,’ he’s talking about the collective we: like-minded, thoughtful, sensible people who were not going to vote this person into office. You know, obviously, in retrospect, do I wish he hadn’t sent it? Yes. It’s been mutilated to death, and it’s been used to bludgeon an institution I love, and it’s meant that I’ve disappointed countless people. But this is a snapshot in time carrying on a conversation that had happened earlier in the day that reflected a broad sense of, ‘He’s not going to be president.’ We, the democratic people of this country, are not going to let it happen.”
She also tried to explain the text messages about an investigation being an “insurance policy” against a Trump victory by claiming that she thought he would not win, but that didn’t mean they should drop the investigation.
“We’re talking about whether or not we should take certain investigative steps or not based on the likelihood that he’s going to be president or not. You have to keep in mind, if President Trump doesn’t become president, the national security risks if there is somebody in his campaign associated with Russia plummets. You’re not so worried about what Russia’s doing vis-à-vis a member of his campaign if he’s not president because you’re not going to have access to classified information, you’re not going to have access to sources and methods in our national security apparatus,” Page said. “So, the insurance policy was an analogy.”
She added, “It’s like an insurance policy when you’re 40. You don’t expect to die when you’re 40, yet you still have an insurance policy.”
Page and Strzok had been having an affair while working in the FBI, something Trump has repeatedly referenced in his criticisms of the two and the FBI.
