Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page has finally decided to speak out, nearly two years after her anti-Donald Trump text messages with former FBI head of counterintelligence Peter Strzok were released to the public. President Donald Trump has routinely attacked the pair in an attempt to undercut the FBI's investigation into potential collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government during the 2016 presidential election.
While Page did her best to stay out of the public eye, it was tough because Trump kept bringing up her extramarital affair and the text messages she exchanged with Strzok. Now, she is telling her side of the story in an exclusive interview with the Daily Beast.
Page said that she decided to speak publicly after a Trump rally on October 11 in Minneapolis in which Trump made crude comments referencing her affair with Strzok.
"I had stayed quiet for years, hoping it would fade away, but instead, it got worse," Page said. "It had been so hard not to defend myself, to let people who hate me control the narrative. I decided to take my power back."
She called Trump's constant attacks "sickening" and said she felt like he was "demeaning" her career in the FBI.
"It's like being punched in the gut. My heart drops to my stomach when I realize he has tweeted about me again," she said. "The President of the United States is calling me names to the entire world. He's demeaning me and my career. It's sickening."
Page went on to say that she felt intimidated by Trump, especially when he accused her of treason.
"But it's also very intimidating because he's still the President of the United States. And when the President accuses you of treason by name, despite the fact that I know there's no fathomable way that I have committed any crime at all, let alone treason, he's still somebody in a position to actually do something about that. To try to further destroy my life. It never goes away or stops, even when he's not publicly attacking me."
Page said that despite being out of the government for 18 months, she still finds herself at the center of Trump's attacks, pointing out that he questioned why she wasn't in jail in a tweet on November 18.
"I wouldn’t even call it PTSD because it’s not over. It’s ongoing. It’s not a historical event that is being relived. It just keeps happening.”
Photo: Getty Images