Lisa Page testimony reveals the FBI discussed bringing charges against Hillary Clinton but the Department of Justice said no

  We all remember that ill-fated day when James Comey held his press conference in which he listed all of the things Hillary Clinton did illegally before claiming no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against her. We also remember he said her actions did not amount to “gross negligence” but rather she was just “extremely careless” with classified information.

  The change in terms from “gross negligence” to “extremely careless” was the saving grace for Hillary Clinton because she could have been prosecuted if the FBI believed she was grossly negligent. Well, it turns out the FBI did think she might have been grossly negligent after all and the agency was talked out of bringing charges against the former Secretary of State by the Department of Justice. That is what newly released testimony from Lisa Page has shown us.

  Here is more:

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page testified last year that officials in the bureau, including then-FBI Director James Comey, discussed Espionage Act charges against Hillary Clinton, citing “gross negligence,” but the Justice Department shut them down.

Newly released transcripts from Page’s private testimony in front of a joint task force of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees in July 2018 sheds new light on the internal discussions about an investigation into Clinton’s emails. This goes back to the FBI’s “Midyear Exam” investigation, which looked into whether Clinton committed crimes when she sent and received classified information on her unauthorized private email server while serving as secretary of state.

  All this time we have been under the impression that James Comey was the one providing cover for Hillary Clinton but it turns out it was the Department of Justice if this testimony is true. Here is more still:

Page told the committee that the FBI “did not blow over gross negligence.” Responding to a question from Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, Page testified the FBI, including Comey, believed Clinton may have committed gross negligence. “We, in fact — and, in fact, the Director — because, on its face, it did seem like, well, maybe there’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.

Page further testified the DOJ put a stop to that: “The Justice Department’s assessment was that it was both constitutionally vague, so that they did not actually feel that they could permissibly bring that charge.” 

Page said Comey and the FBI spoke with DOJ about a gross negligence charge for Clinton multiple times, but that the DOJ consistently pushed back on it. “We had multiple conversations with the Justice Department about bringing a gross negligence charge. 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,” she said.

  And here is the kicker, according to Lisa Page’s sworn testimony this was basically an order from the Department of Justice:

Ratcliffe asked if the decision not to charge Clinton with gross negligence was a direct order from the DOJ. “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,’” he said.

Page responded: “That’s correct.”

  So it looks as if that infamous tarmac meeting between Loretta Lynch and Bill Clinton paid dividends, but of course we knew it did. When James Comey said no reasonable prosecutor would bring charges against Hillary Clinton perhaps what he really meant to say is there were no reasonable prosecutors in the Department of Justice who would bring charges against her. Of course I still do not think it took too much to convince James Comey not to recommend charging Hillary Clinton…

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium