Lisa Page explains why she and Strzok talked about "insurance policy" about Trump



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During an in camera interview, Mr. Page entrusted members of the House with the text message on an "insurance policy" if Trump won the 2016 election – cited by the Republicans to point out the anti-Trump bias shown by the investigators – was referring to the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into whether members of the Trump team were colluding with Russia would have greater significance if it was in the White House.

"If he's not elected, then, to the extent that the Russians have agreed with members of his team, we will continue to investigate on it even without him being president, because every time the Russians do anything with an American, we pay attention, and that's very serious for us, "said Page.

"But when he becomes president, it totally changes the game because he is now president of the United States," she said. "He will immediately begin to receive classified briefings.He will be exposed to the most sensitive secrets imaginable.And if there is anyone in his team who knowingly or unconsciously works with the Russians is very serious. "

Page was addressed to the House's oversight and judicial committees as part of last year's Republican inquiry into the FBI and the Justice Department's handling of investigations into Hillary Clinton and Trump and Russia .

The transcript of the two-part interview of Page in July 2018 was made public Tuesday by the Supreme Republican of the Judiciary Committee of the House, the representative of Georgia, Doug Collins. Last week, he released the interview transcript of the Justice Department official, Bruce Ohr, and announced that he was considering continuing to publish more panel interviews conducted at the Ministry of Justice. 39, last year.

Page text messages exchanged with Strzok while FBI officials had a case at the heart of the Republican inquiry, in which GOP lawmakers claimed that key officials charged with investigating Clinton and Trump had protested an obvious political bias.

Page 's interview took place immediately after the noisy public hearing with Strzok, in which he acknowledged his personal political biases, while asserting that they did not affect his professional work.

Page made a similar argument in his in camera interview with the panels, stating that his professional decisions, as well as those of Strzok, were unrelated to the personal text messages exchanged.

In the interview, Page noted that there was also an anti-Clinton bias at the FBI. She said that Strzok told her about senior FBI officials expressing the feeling that "you have to look for her". But she said the comments were not instructions for the investigators, but rather "smack talk".

"That's what I keep trying to say, that is, we do not like very much about the people we're investigating. We especially appreciate not the people we are investigating, "said Page.

CNN had previously reported that Page explained another controversial text in his interview: "We need to open the file we are waiting for now while Andy is acting," Strzok had texted him a few hours after the FBI's director, Jim Comey, shot: about who was the director of the FBI.

"This case has been a topic of discussion for some time," said Page. "The expectation" was indecision and caution on the part of the Bureau as to the way forward, ie, there was enough preaching to open. "

CNN's Tara Subramaniam contributed to this report.

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