Former FBI attorney Lisa Page sued the Department of Justice and the FBI on Tuesday, alleging information about her was improperly disclosed to the media.
Page’s lawsuit accuses the DOJ and FBI of violating the Privacy Act by “unlawfully” releasing text message exchanges between her and fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, who she engaged in an extramarital affair with while at the bureau. She and Strzok were involved in the investigation of failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails, and of the probe into the 2016 Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia. In her lawsuit, the former FBI attorney further claims President Donald Trump used the messages to impugn her character, which she says has garnered her “unwanted media attention that has radically altered her day-to-day life.”
I sued the Department of Justice and FBI today.
I take little joy in having done so. But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal.https://t.co/ecR58rmxlB
— Lisa Page (@NatSecLisa) December 10, 2019
Messages between Strzok and Page showed the pair repeatedly criticizing then-candidate Donald Trump and his supporters, prompting Strzok’s removal from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. “Their discussion of an “insurance” policy has fueled suspicion among Trump supporters that the agency intended to remove Trump from office if he won,” Breitbart News has previously reported.
The development comes after Page spoke out for the first time in a sympathetic interview with the Daily Beast. Her remarks were published ahead of the Department of Justice Inspector General’s report into alleged abuses by FBI in its handling of the Trump-Russia probe.
“Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Page told interviewer Molly Jong-Fast on why she decided to break her silence.
“While it would be nice to have the IG confirm publicly that my personal opinions had absolutely no bearing on the course of the Russia investigations, I don’t kid myself that the fact will matter very much for a lot of people. The president has a very loud megaphone,” she added.
The DOJ inspector general report, released on Monday, said investigators found 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” involving three applications filed under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) were detailed. It said the inaccuracies likely led to the FBI’s justification to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Page isn’t the only former employee suing the FBI and DOJ. In August, Strzok filed a lawsuit against the two agencies claiming his firing was “politically-driven and illegal.”
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