Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins released the private testimony of former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, but it’s former Attorney General Loretta Lynch who may feel the sting.
According to Page’s testimony, which was made public on Tuesday, the FBI considered charging former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with gross negligence under 18 U.S. Code § 793 for her alleged handling of classified information. (RELATED: Doug Collins Releases Ex-FBI Lawyer Lisa Page’s Interview Transcripts)
NEW: Lisa Page’s congressional testimony reveals that the FBI was considering charging Hillary Clinton under the Espionage Act for “gross negligence” — until the DOJ flat-out told them “No.”https://t.co/c6t7UyttzB
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 12, 2019
“We had multiple conversations with the Justice Department about bringing a gross negligence charge,” Page told Republican Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe. “And that’s, as I said, the advice that we got from the Department was that they did not think — that it was constitutionally vague and not sustainable.”
Ratcliffe responded, “When you say advice you got from the Department, you’re making it sound like it was the Department that told you: ‘You’re not going to charge gross negligence because we’re the prosecutors and we’re telling you we’re not going to.'”
“That’s correct,” Page answered.
But if Page were telling the truth, and the FBI did recommend possible charges against Clinton, then Lynch may not have been telling the truth when she said that she would “accept their recommendations.”
Lynch: “I fully expect to accept” the DOJ and FBI recommendations on the Clinton email probe https://t.co/8I58ZMGkGD https://t.co/A1DeQqJ6cB
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 1, 2016
“I fully expect to accept their recommendations,” Lynch said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado on July 1, 2016. “I will be accepting their recommendations and their plans for going forward.”
Lynch, who was responding to criticism of her tarmac meeting with former President Bill Clinton, made the reassurance that she would abide by the recommendations of the FBI when she declined to recuse herself from the case. “It’s important to make it clear that that meeting with President Clinton does not have a bearing on how this matter is going to be reviewed, resolved and accepted by me,” she said.