Two FBI officials who have faced scrutiny in recent months resigned from the bureau on Friday, sources familiar with their departures have confirmed to CNN.
Lisa Page, who served as an FBI lawyer and close adviser to former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, voluntarily resigned Friday, a source close to Page told CNN.
Page came under increasing attack after her text messages with FBI special agent Peter Strzok criticizing President Donald Trump came to light last winter. She briefly served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team last summer before returning to her duties at the FBI.
The text messages between Strzok and her became fodder for the President and Republican lawmakers who leveled accusations that some members of the FBI working on the Russia probe are biased against Trump.
James A. Baker, the former general counsel for the FBI and one of former FBI Director James Comey’s closest advisers, also resigned Friday, according to a source familiar with Baker’s departure. A second source familiar with Baker’s thinking said his departure was unrelated to Page’s resignation and that hers came as a surprise to him. He left the FBI voluntarily, according to a person familiar with his departure.
Baker will be going to Lawfare, a national security blog affiliated with the Brookings Institution. He was tapped as the FBI’s top lawyer in January 2014, but was reassigned from his post as general counsel elsewhere in the agency last year.
Comey said in a statement on Friday, “Jim Baker represents the best of the Department of Justice and the FBI. He has protected the country and the rule of law throughout his career and leaves an inspiring legacy of service. He is what we should all hope our kids become, a person of integrity.”
Their departures were first reported by The New York Times.
