Lisa Page Complains to Rachel Maddow: 'This Is Not How Public Servants Should Be Treated'

Former FBI Lawyer Lisa Page said the “insurance policy” text message former FBI agent Peter Strzok sent her referred to the investigative steps the FBI was considering as part of the Russia probe during the course of the presidential election.

“We’re using an analogy. We’re talking about whether or not we should take certain investigative steps or not based on the likelihood that he’s going to be president or not, right? You have to keep in mind if President Trump doesn’t become president the national security risk if there is somebody in his campaign associated with Russia plummets,” Page said on Tuesday night during an MSNBC interview.

“You’re not so worried about what Russia is doing vis-à-vis a member of his campaign if he’s not president because you’re not going to have access to classified information, you’re not going to have access to sources and methods in our national security apparatus,” she added.

Page continued, “So, the ‘insurance policy’ was an analogy. It’s like an insurance policy when you’re 40. You don’t expect to die when you’re 40, yet you still have an insurance policy.”

Page also explained that the text message “we’ll stop it,” which was contained in another exchange with Strzok, whom was she having an affair with at the time, was referring to the American people.

Trump is “not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page wrote. “No. No he won’t,” Strzok responded. “We’ll stop it.”

“By ‘we,’ he’s talking about the collective we: like-minded, thoughtful, sensible people who were not going to vote this person into office. You know, obviously, in retrospect, do I wish he hadn’t sent it? Yes. It’s been mutilated to death, and it’s been used to bludgeon an institution I love, and it’s meant that I’ve disappointed countless people,” Page said. “But this is a snapshot in time carrying on a conversation that had happened earlier in the day that reflected a broad sense of, ‘He’s not going to be president.’ We, the democratic people of this country, are not going to let it happen.”

Page is suing the Department of Justice and the FBI over the leaking of her texts. Strzok has sued DOJ and FBI over his termination as well.

“This is not how public servants should be treated,” she said, adding that she believes the DOJ betrayed her and Strzok.