Lisa Page — former FBI lawyer, and one-time colleague and romantic partner of fired agent Peter Strzok— has lashed out at President Donald Trump and his attacks against her in an interview with the Daily Beast.
The final straw in a series of unprecedented attacks on the couple by Trump was what Page characterised as the president’s performance at a campaign rally in October of an imagined “orgasm” between the two, Page said. That’s why she finally decided to speak out publicly.
“Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back,” explained Page, who called it a “truly reprehensible, degrading stunt ... in which he used my name to simulate an orgasm.”
“I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,” Page said. “It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back.”
Page and Strzok were involved in the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the Kremlin’s interference in the U.S. presidential election.
The two, who were having an affair, were singled out by the president after their disparaging text messages about Trump surfaced (though the two also criticised Democrats in texts). Trump has characterised the criticism as a sign of an illegal and biased vendetta against him by an imagined “deep state” of organised government workers, including in the FBI.
Page has denied any bias or wrongdoing in her work and insists she has a right to her personal opinions. A report scheduled for release Dec. 9 by the Justice Department’s inspector general is expected to clear the FBI of any politically motivated bias against the president, sources have told The New York Times.
The relentless attacks by Trump have been an ordeal, Page told The Daily Beast.
“It’s like being punched in the gut,” she said. “My heart drops to my stomach when I realize he has tweeted about me again. The president of the United States is calling me names to the entire world. He’s demeaning me and my career. It’s sickening ... [and] also very intimidating.”
She added: “When the president accuses you of treason ... despite the fact that I know there’s no fathomable way that I have committed any crime at all, let alone treason, he’s still somebody in a position to actually do something about that.”
As devastating as her personal pain is, she is also horrified that in the era of Trump places like the FBI and the Department of Justice are “not fulfilling the critical obligation that they have to speak truth to power,” Page said.
Page left her job 18 months ago. Strzok was ousted last year by the FBI over the text messages, despite a recommendation by an FBI official that he not be fired. He is currently suing the FBI and the Justice Department, alleging officials caved into pressure from Trump to force him out of the bureau and that he was unfairly punished for expressing a political opinion.
Check out the entire Daily Beast story here.