Former FBI attorney Lisa Page, whose anti-Trump text message conversations with colleague and paramour Peter Strozk garnered national attention during the Mueller probe, is suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice for allegedly violating the Federal Privacy Act.
What are the details?
Page announced the lawsuit on Twitter Tuesday, saying, "I sued the Department of Justice and FBI today."
"I take little joy in having done so," she added. "But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal."
I sued the Department of Justice and FBI today.
I take little joy in having done so. But what they did in leaking my messages to the press was not only wrong, it was illegal.lawfareblog.com/former-fbi-law…
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In the lawsuit, Page argues that the two federal agencies "violated the Privacy Act by unlawfully" releasing the text messages to the press on Dec. 12, 2017.
They did so, the lawsuit alleges, "to promote the false narrative that [Page] and others at the FBI were biased against President Trump, had conspired to undermine him, and otherwise had engaged in allegedly criminal acts, including treason."
According to the lawsuit, officials at the FBI and DOJ believed releasing the messages would "elevate [the] DOJ's standing with the President following the President's repeated public attacks" on the department and then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Anything else?
The lawsuit cites numerous damages including the "cost of therapy" and "permanent loss of earning capacity."
The full list of damages from the lawsuit is listed in bullet form below:
- (a) permanent loss of earning capacity due to reputational damage;
- (b) attorneys' fees relating to investigations and congressional testimony as well as efforts to prevent the release of personal text messages;
- (c) the cost of childcare during and transportation to multiple investigative interviews and appearances before Congress;
- (d) the cost of paying a data-privacy service to protect her personal information; and
- (e) the cost of therapy to cope with unwanted national media exposure and harassment caused by the December 12 disclosure.
Page recently broke her nearly two-year silence following the release of the test messages in a Daily Beast interview in which she portrayed herself as a victim of the President's personal attacks.
She suggested that Trump acted out a fake orgasm in mockery of her during a rally in October, and that his insult forced her to speak up.
"Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel's back," she said. "I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse. 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."
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