Lisa Page: Obama’s DoJ blocked ‘gross negligence’ charges against Hillary

By Jon Dougherty

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, one of the central “Spygate” figures who appeared to conspire with fired agent and one-time paramour Peter Strzok against President Donald Trump’s candidacy, says the Obama Justice Department blocked the FBI from charging then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with “gross negligence.”

In testimony last year before Congress, Page said FBI officials including then-Director James Comey talked about charging Clinton under the Espionage Act for her criminal mishandling of classified emails, but Obama’s politicized Justice Department said no.

According to theÂ Washington Examiner, newly releasedÂ transcriptsÂ from Pageâ€™s private testimony in front of a joint task force of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in July 2018 provide new details regarding those internal discussions stemming from the FBI’s investigation into Clinton’s emails.

Specifically, Page was referencing the bureau’s probe dubbed “Midyear Exam,” in which the bureau was attempting to determine whether Clinton violated the law when she sent classified emails over her private, unsecured email server when she was secretary of state.

Comey eventually cleared Clinton of all charges during an odd press conference in July 2016 after a short interview with Clinton just a few days earlier.

In his statement, Comey assiduously avoided using the term “gross negligence” in describing Clinton’s actions; that is the term contained within the Espionage Act. Instead, he used this language:

Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.

In her testimony, Page said that the FBI “did not blow over gross negligence.â€ In response to a question from Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), Page testified the FBI, including Comey, believed Clinton may have committed gross negligence.

â€œWe, in fact â€” and, in fact, the Director â€” because, on its face, it did seem like, well, maybe thereâ€™s a potential here for this to be the charge. And we had multiple conversations, multiple conversations with the Justice Department about charging gross negligence,” she said.

But Obama’s Justice Department, then led by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, said nope.

â€œThe Justice Departmentâ€™s assessment was that it was both constitutionally vague so that they did not actually feel that they could permissibly bring that charge,” Page testified.



