Lisa Page, the former FBI lawyer who worked on former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, has joined MSNBC as a legal analyst, the network announced Friday.
Page was thrust into the national spotlight after text messages were leaked between her and FBI counterintelligence agent Andrew Strzok in which they criticized President Trump. Strzok was removed from Mueller’s team, while Page had already returned to the FBI.
She swiftly emerged as a chief GOP boogeyman, with Republicans saying her texts with Strzok were evidence that elements of the Justice Department were trying to impede Trump’s presidency.
Page later filed a lawsuit against the FBI and Justice Department, claiming the agencies unlawfully released to the press text messages between her and Strzok in December 2017 for “multiple improper reasons.”
Trump made mockery of Page and Strzok a hallmark of his campaign speeches, often berating them for their extramarital affair.
“It’s like being punched in the gut,” Page said in an interview last year. “My heart drops to my stomach when I realize 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.”
A report from the Department of Justice’s inspector general ultimately found that no political bias motivated the investigation into Russia’s election interference, although it said agents omitted certain key information in applications to surveil former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page in 2016.
MSNBC’s hiring comes after CNN hired Page’s former boss, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, in August 2019.