Former FBI attorney Lisa Page, who was part of the FBI’s investigations into Hillary Clinton’s private email server and Russian interference in the 2016 election, will give a closed-door transcribed interview to two House committees on Friday and Monday — saving herself from being held in contempt of Congress.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., announced an agreement was reached to have Page give a transcribed interview Friday afternoon, which will continue on to Monday.
“This decision is long overdue,” he said in a statement Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Goodlatte said on Fox Business’s “Mornings with Maria” that Page, through her attorney, agreed to a private interview “late last night.”
Goodlatte and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy told Page’s attorney Amy Jeffress in a Wednesday afternoon letter that by not complying with a subpoena earlier that day, she could either appear Thursday at a scheduled public hearing along FBI agent Peter Strzok, or “present herself for a deposition on Friday, July 13, 2018, at 10:00 a.m.”
If she chose not appear at either, House Judiciary said contempt proceedings would begin at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Goodlatte and Gowdy had originally sent a letter to the Justice Department on Dec. 19, 2017 requesting Page be made available for a transcribed interview. The two chairmen again asked for Page’s cooperation in an April 16 letter.
In June, Goodlatte and Gowdy then wrote a letter to Jeffress asking that Page be made available immediately for a transcribed interview.
According to Goodlatte, counsel for the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees have been in contact with Jeffress “for nearly a month now” about Wednesday’s appearance.
“When she says that she has not had ample time to prepare, that is belied by those facts,” he said in an appearance Wednesday on Fox News. “This subpoena is still in effect. She should comply with it.”
Page’s messages with Strzok, with whom she was having an extramarital affair, originally became public as part of an watchdog investigation at the Department of Justice. Page and Strzok had worked on the Clinton and Russia investigations together.
The two were named heavily in a June report by the Justice Department’s inspector general report about the two FBI probes, mostly for their text messages disparaging then-candidate Donald Trump. Page and Strzok were also on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team before they were removed.
Jeffress said in a statement Wednesday morning that Page is willing to talk later this month to the committees, explaining that her client 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.
“I received a message from the Department of Justice after 11 pm 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,” Jeffress said in the statement. “There is no basis for claims that Lisa has anything to hide or is unwilling to testify.”
Strzok testified for 11 hours behind closed doors last month with the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, and appeared publicly before the two panels Thursday, where he defended the messages.
House Republicans have seized on the Page and Strzok text messages as clear examples of bias atop the FBI and Justice Department.
“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 headed by 13 Angry Democrats and people that worked for Obama for 8 years. Total disgrace!” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning.
The president also chided Page in a Wednesday afternoon tweet while attending NATO’s annual summit in Brussels. “Ex-FBI LAYER Lisa Page today defied a House of Representatives issued Subpoena to testify before Congress! Wow, but is anybody really surprised! Together with her lover, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, she worked on the Rigged Witch Hunt, perhaps the most tainted and corrupt case EVER!” Trump tweeted.
Meanwhile, House Democrats have dismissed the ongoing investigation into and interviews with Page and Strzok as “a political charade” and an effort to discredit Mueller’s probe.
