‘I decided to take my power back’: Lisa Page
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page has tried to avoid the media spotlight since gaining national attention for her text messages with fired FBI agent Peter Strzok, which President Donald Trump and his allies have used as evidence of a ‘‘deep state’’ conspiracy to undermine his presidency.
But in a rare interview, Page, 39, told The Daily Beast that she could no longer silently stomach the president’s attacks on her.
She said ‘‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’’ came when Trump repeatedly called her name at an October 11 rally in Minneapolis in what she described as a ‘‘demeaning fake orgasm’’ while mocking her and Strzok, who were engaged in an extramarital affair.
‘‘I had stayed quiet for years hoping it would fade away, but instead it got worse,’’ she says. ‘‘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.’’
‘‘I’m done being quiet,’’ she said on Monday in a tweet linking
Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page has been a tweeting target for President Donald Trump for years.
to the Daily Beast interview.
Page, who left the FBI in May 2018, said ‘‘it’s almost impossible to describe’’ the feeling of being attacked by Trump. ‘‘It’s like being punched in the gut. My heart drops to my stomach when I realise he has tweeted about me again.
‘‘The president of the United States is calling me names to the
entire world. He’s demeaning me and my career. It’s sickening,’’ she told The Daily Beast.
‘‘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.’’
Trump last tweeted about Page on November 15 after his longtime associate Roger Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing an investigation. He decried that Stone was headed to jail when Page, Strzok and others, including his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, went free.
Investigations have not shown Page, Strzok, Clinton or any of the others accused by Trump are guilty of any criminal wrongdoing.
In a June 2018 report, the Justice Department inspector general’s office said it was deeply troubled by the anti-Trump texts between Page and Strzok – who was fired from the FBI in August 2018 – but ‘‘did not find evidence to connect the political views expressed in these messages to the specific investigative decisions’’ they made in the investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server. – TNS
Smooth, dark and diminutive, it is an affordable and indispensable jump-start to the day for millions of Italians, and now the country is pushing for World Heritage recognition for its espresso coffee.
Italy argues that espresso, made in traditional coffee machines in bars and cafes across the country, is not only a distinctive beverage but an integral part of the country’s cultural heritage.
Cappuccino, macchiato and caffe corretto ("corrected’’ with a drop of grappa or cognac) may have their followers, but espresso remains the pure, elemental expression of Italian coffee.
Espresso will be put forward as a candidate for Unesco listing at an event in the Italian parliament in Rome today.
The bid is being promoted by the Consortium for the Safeguarding of Traditional Italian Espresso Coffee.
‘‘We represent the whole supply chain, from the companies that roast the coffee to those that manufacture coffee machines,’’ said Andrea Pascale, one of the organisers. – Telegraph Group