You may recall that Lisa Page was originally scheduled to testify to a closed House committee on Wednesday. That didn’t happen but the testimony was rescheduled for today with a second session scheduled for next Monday. By all accounts, Page was a very different witness that Peter Strzok who testified in an explosive open hearing Thursday. CNN reports that Republicans praised Page as a “credible witness” and said she’s been very forthcoming with new information:

Two Republican congressmen, Reps. John Ratcliffe of Texas and Matt Gaetz of Florida, characterized Page’s closed-door testimony as more forthcoming than Strzok’s, because she answered more questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, as well as the Hillary Clinton probe.

Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a North Carolina Republican, said they had learned new information that “has been a long time coming,” but he and the other lawmakers declined to provide details.

“There is significant new info she has provided,” Meadows said, adding that he wouldn’t discuss details unless transcripts of the interviews were released…

Meadows called Page a “very credible witness,” and said she had been “falsely accused” of not wanting to cooperate with the committee, a charge that had been levied by his fellow Republicans and President Trump…

“I found Lisa Page to be far more credible than Strzok,” Gaetz said. “We did not see the smug attitude that we saw from Strozk.”

Rep. Meadows also added that he didn’t see the need for public testimony from Page of the kind we saw yesterday. All of that is quite a turnaround from a couple of days ago when Rep. Goodlatte said she would be held in contempt of Congress if she failed to show up and testify. Part of it may have been Page’s attitude but I’m certain that the lack of cameras in the room probably helped bring the temperature down as well. But despite the generally complimentary mood toward Page, Republicans weren’t feeling any warmer toward Strzok. From the Hill:

“The specific questions that Lisa Page answered that Peter Strzok did not heightened my concern that the processes at the FBI were contrived to fit the desired outcomes of people who were biased in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump,” Gaetz said.

As I’ve written before, Page is a lesser figure in all of this both because she no longer works for the FBI and also because she wasn’t in charge of the investigations in the same way as Strzok. I don’t think that means she was any less biased than he was but ultimately he’s the bigger fish. Here’s Fox News video of Page arriving at the hearing today. As Catherine Herridge reports, she didn’t answer any questions on the way in.

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page arrives to face lawmakers over anti-Trump texts; Catherine Herridge reports. pic.twitter.com/yMZvVAfnjh

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 13, 2018