Lisa Page tells the Daily Beast being targeted by Trump is sickening

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page told the Daily Beast in an interview published Sunday night being the target of President Trump's wrath over the past two years is "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."

Why it matters: Page became a target of the president's attacks when he was a candidate and she was a trial attorney on then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, after it emerged that she and former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok exchanged private text messages, some of which criticized Trump.

• The president and other conservatives believe the Russia probe was politically motivated and part of a conspiracy to undermine the Trump presidency.

The big picture: A #ReleaseTheMemo campaign was launched by Republicans, who clashed with Democrats over the issue of missing messages between Page and Strzok.

• The Department of Justice revealed in December 2018 an investigation found thousands of missing texts between the pair weren't withheld with malicious intent. Instead, it was an FBI technological messaging sweep failure.

What she's saying: In her wide-ranging interview with the Daily Beast, Page said she was "overwhelmed by dread and embarrassment" about her "deeply personal secret" affair with Strzok being made public after being told by the DOJ Inspector General's office in July 2017 that she was under investigation for political text messages. She strongly rejects the claims.

• It's "very painful to see" places like the FBI and the Department of Justice failing to fulfill the "critical obligation that they have to speak truth to power," she said.

"[It's] crushing to see the noble Justice Department, my Justice Department, the place I grew up in, feel like it's abandoned its principles of truth and independence." 

• Page called Trump's attacks on her "very intimidating because he’s still the president of the United States," she said, and revealed she decided to speak out after the president's "demeaning fake orgasm" impersonation of her at a Minneapolis rally in October that "was really the straw that broke the camel’s back."

• [W]hen 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," she said. "To try to further destroy my life."

Go deeper:

• Trump sounds off on FBI report: "Doesn't get any lower than that!"
• A timeline of Strzok and Page's texts
• Former FBI agent Peter Strzok sues Justice Department for wrongful firing

Editor's note: This article has been updated with more details from Page's Daily Beast interview and further context.