Lisa Page Slams Trump After ‘Lovebirds’ Skit Performed at CPAC

(Bloomberg) -- Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page said President Donald Trump is “obsessed” with the text messages between her and former FBI agent Peter Strzok that were critical of him during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Page tweeted on Sunday after a dramatized reading of the pair's texts was performed at the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington as a play entitled “FBI Lovebirds: Undercover.” Trump had a lengthy meeting in the Oval Office with the actors and writers behind the skit.

“More than three years later, long after his election victory, Donald Trump is still obsessed with two officials who did their jobs while personally not liking him,” Page said, referring to herself and Strzok.

“They are still the stars of Trump rallies, where the president performs their exchanges, grotesquely,” added Page.

The anti-Trump exchanges on government-issued mobile phones became public knowledge when released in 2017 by the Justice Department.

The pair have become regular foils for Trump and his supporters, who've depicted them as key players in an alleged conspiracy in which the FBI unfairly investigated allegations of ties between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Mocking References

In December, an inspector general's findings on the early stages of the FBI's probe into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign found that Page's personal opinions didn't factor into the opening of any of the investigations against him. Page resigned from the FBI in 2018.

Trump has continued to mockingly cite the Strzok-Page texts, including last month at an event at the White House following his acquittal by the Republican-led Senate of impeachment charges.

Efforts to mock the pair arguably reached a new level at CPAC. The skit where the texts were dramatized was performed by actors Dean Cain, who once portrayed Superman on television, and Kristy Swanson, star of the 1992 film, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” The effort was written and produced by Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney.

“We met the president of the United States today in the Oval Office for 40 minutes,” McElhinney told the conference during a Q&A session after a performance. “He loves the play.”

“He said he wants to play a part,” added Swanson.

In December Page said in a MSNBC interview that Trump had performed a “vile, sort-of simulated sex act” about her and Strzok at a campaign rally. She's since sued the Justice Department and FBI, alleging they violated her right to privacy by releasing the text messages between her and Strzok.

To contact the reporter on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kevin Whitelaw at kwhitelaw@bloomberg.net, Ros Krasny, Matthew G. Miller

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.