WASHINGTON – Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with FBI agent Peter Strzok, has been subpoenaed for a closed-door interview this week with the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, according to two congressional sources.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, subpoenaed Page to attend a deposition on Wednesday, the sources said, one day before Strzok is slated to testify publicly before the two House panels.
Page’s attorney Amy Jeffress said in a statement to CNN that she has been working with the committee staff to arrange for her client’s “voluntary appearance.”
“We asked the committee staff to explain the scope of the investigation and provide sufficient notice that would allow her to prepare, which are normal conditions for congressional committees, but these committees have not followed the normal process,” Jeffress said. “The FBI has agreed to provide Lisa with her notes and other documents to allow her to prepare, but they have not provided those documents to date, so we are still waiting to work out a reasonable date for her interview. Lisa has cooperated voluntarily with another congressional committee that had no objection to explaining the scope of its investigation or providing sufficient notice for her interview. Lisa also cooperated fully with the OIG investigation and appeared voluntarily for multiple interviews, including after she left the FBI.”
President Donald Trump and his GOP allies have seized on the texts between Strzok and Page as evidence that the FBI’s investigation into Trump and Russia has been tainted by biased investigators. Strzok and Page, who were having an extramarital affair, worked on the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations, and Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team when the texts were discovered last year.
“Public opinion has turned strongly against the Rigged Witch Hunt and the ‘Special’ Counsel because the public understands that there was no Collusion with Russia (so ridiculous), that the two FBI lovers were a fraud against our Nation & that the only Collusion was with the Dems!” Trump tweeted over the weekend.
Strzok was interviewed behind closed doors by the committees for 11 hours last month. His lawyer has demanded that the committees release the transcript of that interview, and accused Republicans of speaking out about his closed-door testimony and mischaracterizing Strzok’s answers.
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