Politics

Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page Sues DOJ Over Released Text Messages

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Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is suing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI for releasing text messages between herself and former deputy assistant director Peter Strzok, with whom she was having an affair.

Both Page and Strzok exhibited anti-Trump bias in the released text messages. President Donald Trump argued that the agents’ biases played a role in the bureau investigating members of his presidential campaign.

“I sued the Department of Justice and FBI today. I take little joy in having done so,” Page tweeted Tuesday. “But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal.”

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

The thousands of text messages released by the DOJ were sent on agency-issued phones. They were released as part of a 90-page document.

Page’s lawsuit accuses the DOJ bringing “reporters to the Department to review the messages at night, prohibiting the reporters from copying or removing the set of messages from the building, and instructing them not to reveal DOJ as the source.”

“This clandestine approach is inconsistent with the disclosure of agency records for transparency purposes or to advance the public interest,” according to the lawsuit.

Since the text messages were released, Trump has criticized Page over the text messages. The texts between Strzok and Page included talk of the president. In one, Page asked for reassurance from Strzok that Trump is “not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”

Strzok replied saying that Trump would not be president, and that they would “stop it.”