Wow, 370 pages of closed-door testimony from an FBI lawyer who alleges the Obama Justice Department told the FBI not to charge Secretary Hillary Clinton for “gross negligence?” The Democrat-controlled House shutting down the committee charged with investigating possible bias at the DOJ and FBI? Those things sound irresistibly tantalizing for reporters, but for the Big Three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), it drew only yawns.
With Democrats shutting down a joint congressional task force set up to look into potential bias at the Department of Justice and in the FBI, Republican Congressman Doug Collins (GA) released the transcripts from their two days of interviews with former FBI lawyer Lisa Page on Tuesday. But none of the broadcast networks mentioned it on their Tuesday evening shows, nor their morning and evening shows on Wednesday.
In contrast, Fox News chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge delivered a report on the transcripts during Wednesday’s Special Report. “We’re learning more tonight about what the Obama Justice Department ordered federal lawyers to do and not to do concerning the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation,” anchor Bret Baier announced in the lead-in.
Herridge wasted no time in getting to the heart of what the committee uncovered through Page’s testimony:
During closed-door testimony, last summer, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page said the Obama administration’s Justice Department advised the FBI not to pursue the gross negligence statute for Hillary Clinton in the mishandling of classified information.
Former U.S. Attorney and House Republican John Radcliffe led the line of questioning about the statute known as 18 U.S. C 793. Radcliffe: “You're making it sound like it was the department who told you: You're not going to charge gross negligence because we’re the prosecutors.” Page interrupted: “That is correct.”
Herridge also reported that the documents revealed that the DOJ gave the FBI a “chart” detailing under what circumstances they would charge Clinton. For “gross negligence”, she read: “DOJ not willing to charge this. Only known cases are military, cases when accused lost the information.”
And according to reporting by The Washington Examiner on Tuesday: “Page would later testify that the DOJ told the FBI that ‘the ‘gross negligence’ standard in 793(f), it was their assessment that it was unconstitutionally vague.’”
“Page’s testimony appears to conflict with then-FBI Director James Comey's recommendation in July 2016 against criminal charges for Clinton,” Herridge noted. She reminded viewers that, in his public announcement not to charge Secretary Clinton with a crime on July 5, 2016, Comey claimed the “investigation was done honestly, competently, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.”
As she was wrapping up the segment, Herridge pointed out the “transcript[s] also confirms Fox’s earlier reporting, that Page testified Russian collusion was still unproven when Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed.”
Instead of reporting on this, all three broadcasters spent time Wednesday evening hyping the sentencing and further indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
The transcripts are below, click "expand" to read:
Fox News Channel’s Special Report
March 13, 2019
6:06 p.m. EasternBRET BAIER: We’re learning more tonight about what the Obama Justice Department ordered federal lawyers to do and not to do concerning the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation. Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge tells us, in unsworn testimony on Capitol Hill, one of the insiders told lawmakers what she was told.
[Cuts to video]
CATHERINE HERRIDGE: During closed-door testimony, last summer, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page said the Obama administration’s Justice Department advised the FBI not to pursue the gross negligence statute for Hillary Clinton in the mishandling of classified information.
Former U.S. Attorney and House Republican John Radcliffe led the line of questioning about the statute known as 18 U.S. C 793. Radcliffe: “You're making it sound like it was the department who told you: You're not going to charge gross negligence because we’re the prosecutors.” Page interrupted: “That is correct.”
Page’s testimony appears to conflict with then-FBI Director James Comey's recommendation in July 2016 against criminal charges for Clinton.
JAMES COMEY: What I can assure the American people, this that investigation was done honestly, competently, and independently. No outside influence of any kind was brought to bear.
HERRIDGE: The Republican-led House Oversight and Judiciary Committee investigation ended in January. With Democrats now in control, the committee's new ranking Republican made the Page transcript public.
REP. DOUG COLLINS: The transcript releases show an inherent two-tier system, one in which Hillary Clinton gets the treatment where she got, where there was actually a first concern that there were going to charge her. Then, with Loretta Lynch in charge, before she recused herself, made it very clear that that was not going to happen.
HERRIDGE: The tip-off came from a chart drawn up by federal investigators assigned to the Clinton case known as Mid Year Exam. Fox News has confirmed that the chart listed possible federal statutes for prosecution. Next to gross negligence was a notation, quote, “DOJ not willing to charge this. Only known cases are military, cases when accused lost the information.”
In response to the Page revelation of the President tweeted, the transcripts, quote, “make the Obama Justice Department look exactly like it was. A broken and corrupt machine.”
[Cuts back to live]
The Page transcript also confirms Fox’s earlier reporting, that Page testified Russian collusion was still unproven when Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed. Bret.
BAIER: Catherine, thank you.
