Trump blasts Obama DOJ as
‘corrupt machine,’ as Page transcript suggests Clinton case intervention, By Gregg Re | Fox News, 3/13/19.
Transcripts of Lisa
Page's testimony released; panel reaction and analysis on 'Hannity.'
President
Trump on Wednesday seized on new revelations contained in transcripts from former FBI lawyer Lisa Page’s
congressional testimony to hammer the Obama Justice Department as a “broken and
corrupt machine.”
Those
transcripts, released by House Judiciary Committee Republicans, appeared to
show Page confirming that DOJ officials during the Hillary Clinton email
investigation made clear to the FBI that they should not pursue Clinton for
“gross negligence” in the handling of classified information.
"The just revealed
FBI Agent Lisa Page transcripts make the Obama Justice Department look exactly
like it was, a broken and corrupt machine. Hopefully, justice will finally be
served. Much more to come!" Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.
The just revealed FBI Agent Lisa Page transcripts make the
Obama Justice Department look exactly like it was, a broken and corrupt
machine. Hopefully, justice will finally be served. Much more to come!
The exchange came under
questioning from Texas Republican Rep. John Ratcliffe during Page’s Hill
appearance last year.
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.
"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."
Ratcliffe on Tuesday
tweeted that Page essentially confirmed that "the FBI was ordered by the
Obama DOJ not to consider charging Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in the handling of classified
information."
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."
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."
Fox News' Brooke Singman
contributed to this report.
Gregg Re is an editor for Fox News. Follow him
on Twitter @gregg_re.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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