Ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page says Trump's 'fake orgasm' at rally forced her to speak out: 'It's like being punched in the gut'
Lisa Page, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) lawyer who exchanged anti-Trump text messages with former FBI head of counterintelligence during their extramarital affair, has broken her silence on the issue after two years.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Page talked about the public scrutiny she received after President Donald Trump recently mocked her text messages with Peter Strzok.
"Honestly, his demeaning fake orgasm was really the straw that broke the camel’s back," she said while referring to Trump.
The president, in a campaign rally in Minneapolis, Minnesota in October, gave an exaggerated reading of Page and Strzok's August 2016 messages. He also mentioned Strzok's assurance to Page of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 presidential elections.
"She's going to win, ten-million-to-one, she's going to win. I'm telling you Peter! Oh Peter, I love you so much," Trump enacted in front of a massive crowd. "I love you, too, Lisa... And if [Hillary Clinton] doesn't win, Lisa, we've got an insurance policy!" the president said.
Strzok, at the time, was overseeing the Clinton email probe and the investigation into the Trump campaign.
Page, in the interview, said that Trump's recent remarks have forced her to return to the media spotlight and publicly confront him.
"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," the 39-year-old said.
The former FBI lawyer called Trump's ridicule of her "sickening," and added that he is attempting to "further destroy her life."
"It's like being punched in the gut. 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. But it's also very intimidating because he’s still the president of the United States," she said.
"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," Page continued.
The lawyer said that the president's verbal attacks on her have affected her everyday life and that she often attempts to "walk the other way" from people wearing Trump gear or MAGA hat to avoid conflict.
"I'm someone who’s always in my head anyway—so now otherwise normal interactions take on a different meaning. Like, when somebody makes eye contact with me on the Metro, I kind of wince, wondering if it’s because they recognize me, or are they just scanning the train like people do? It’s immediately a question of friend or foe?" she continued.
"Or if I’m walking down the street or shopping and there’s somebody wearing Trump gear or a MAGA hat, I’ll walk the other way or try to put some distance between us because I’m not looking for conflict. Really, what I wanted most in this world is my life back," Page added.