Lisa Page to testify behind closed doors
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page is testifying behind closed doors Friday, after she initially refused to testify in public.
Page is a former lawyer with the FBI who worked on the Hillary Clinton email investigation and special counsel's Russia probe, and whose text message exchanges with the FBI's Peter Strzok about then-candidate Donald Trump drew national attention. Strzok testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform and House Judiciary Committees Thursday in a vitriolic, marathon joint hearing Thursday. Page, who declined to join Strzok in that hearing, is meeting with representatives from those two committees Friday afternoon.
The two House committees have been looking to interview Page all year. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Page's decision to speak is "long overdue."
Earlier this week, Page and her lawyer Amy Jeffress delayed the original interview, scheduled at first for Wednesday, because she claimed Page had not been given access to documents she said she needed to review before testifying. The lawyer claimed the joint committees have not "followed the normal process" associated with appearances of this nature.
Jeffress later denied that Page was trying to skirt the meeting and said that her client made it "abundantly clear" that she is willing to cooperate.
Page's behind-closed-doors testimony may spare her from the intensely critical — and at times, highly personal — scenario Strzok faced Thursday. Strzok, who has admitted to having a romantic relationship with Page while they were working together, was asked by GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, if he lied to his wife while he was seeing Page.
"How many times did you look in your wife's eyes and lie to her about Lisa Page?" Gohmert declared, eliciting rebukes from rebuke from Democrats on the panel.
Strzok declined to answer multiple questions about what Page did or didn't know, or her actions during the investigation, which leaves Congress plenty of questions to ask her Friday. The interview is slated for 1:30 p.m. on Capitol Hill.
