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FLast year, Lisa Page, the FBI's attorney, said that bureau officials, including James Comey, then director of the FBI, had discussed the charges against Hillary Clinton under the law on espionage, invoking "gross negligence", but that the Justice Ministry had closed them.
The recently published transcripts of Page's private testimony before a joint working group of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees in July 2018 shed new light on internal discussions regarding a Clinton e-mail inquiry. This goes back to the FBI's "Midyear Exam" investigation, which sought to determine whether Clinton had committed a crime when she had sent and received classified information on her unauthorized private messaging server while she was was secretary of state.
Comey acquitted Clinton of all charges at a press conference on July 5, 2016.
Mr. Page told the committee that the FBI "did not neglect gross negligence." Responding to a question from the Republic Representative, John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, Mr. Page stated that the FBI, including Comey, thought Clinton may have been grossly negligent. done – and, in fact, the director – because, at first sight, it seemed that there may be potential for this charge to be withheld. And we had several conversations, several conversations with the Department of Justice about negligence, "she said.
Page added that the Ministry of Justice had put an end to this: "The Justice Ministry felt that the Constitution was both vague and constitutional, so that he did not think that he It was possible to make this charge lawful. "The specific law mentioned, 18 US Code ยง 793, deals in part with" gross negligence "in the processing of national defense information, which Clinton was examined for possibly violated.
Page said that Comey and the FBI had repeatedly spoken to the Department of Justice about a charge of gross negligence against Clinton, but that the Justice Department had consistently reacted. "We have had many conversations with the Department of Justice about indictable misconduct. And it is, as I said, that the ministry advised us not to think – that it was constitutionally vague and unsustainable, "she said.
Ratcliffe asked if the decision not to charge Clinton with gross negligence was a direct order from the GM. "When you talk about the advice you received from the department, you give the impression that it is the department that told you," You will not accuse of gross negligence because we are the prosecutors and we tell you we're not going, "he said.
Page replied: "It's okay."
Page is the former FBI lawyer who allegedly had an affair with FBI agent Peter Strzok, the Clinton investigator's lead investigator. The thousands of text messages they exchanged about the Clinton and Trump-Russia inquiries raised issues of bias, and Mueller finally removed Strzok from the investigation by a special council. Strzok was also fired by the FBI.
Page's testimony raises further questions regarding the decision not to charge Clinton with crimes, including gross negligence, following a lengthy FBI investigation into his potentially threatening email practices. classified information. After the revelation that then Attorney General Loretta Lynch had met with former President Bill Clinton on a Phoenix tarmac in June 2016, while Hillary Clinton was running for president, Lynch refused to recuse herself while announcing that she would accept Comey's decision to charge charges against Clinton. But Page's testimony indicates that the DOJ had closed the door to gross negligence.
Comey gave an infamous press conference on July 5, 2016, where he listed Clinton's numerous missteps, including the fact that 110 emails from 52 email channels contained classified information when it was sent or received by Clinton. But he would not recommend charging him with any crime whatsoever, and the words "extremely careless" (not a crime) would be used instead of "gross negligence" (an offense punishable by prosecution).
It was Strzok who changed the wording of Comey's draft declaration from "big negligence" in a previous project to "extremely carefree" in the final declaration.
Andy McCarthy, of the National Review, wrote at the time: "According to director James Comey, Hillary Clinton has checked all the required boxes in case of flagrant violation of Article 793 (f) of the Federal Criminal Code … and, in essence, in order to: give a pass to Mrs. Clinton, the FBI rewrote the status. "
Previously, it was reported that a card had been distributed within the FBI without the "gross negligence" is on the list of potential criminal offenses that Clinton could have been accused. Last year, in Congress, an email containing the painting would have been shown to the deputy director of the FBI's counter-espionage division, Bill Priestap. He testified that he did not know why the e-mail said, "The Department of Justice does not want to accuse such acts". Page's testimony indicates that the decision not to charge Clinton with gross negligence came directly from the Department of Justice.
Priestap also stated that "if there is still a federal criminal law, you know – and we think that there may or may not be a violation of it, we still have to strive to determine whether or not it is a crime. there was indeed one. "Page testified that the GM rejected the FBI's desire to explore the charge of gross negligence.
The hundreds of pages of recently published Page testimonials are just the latest insight into Hillary Clinton and President Trump's investigations. The testimony of Bruce Ohr, a DOJ senior official linked to author Christopher Steele and whose wife was working at Fusion GPS, was released last week.
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