Carter Page, the man who federal investigators first targeted for surveillance on the unfounded premise that he was a potential agent for Russia, part of the feds’ now debunked “collusion” claim against the Trump campaign, wasn’t charged — or even so much as mentioned — in Mueller’s various indictments, none of which were related to the original focus of the investigation. Having been finally vindicated with Mueller’s report submitted to the attorney general and no further indictments issued, Page is now getting his chance to tell his story without the cloud of the years-long investigation hanging over his head.
In an interview with former CBS investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson published by Full Measure Sunday, Page describes the FBI’s “outrageous, preposterous” claims against him. Full Measure offers a description of Page, details of which most reports citing him over the last two years have somehow failed to emphasize: He was “a Naval officer in Europe and the Mideast with a brief stint in Navy intelligence,” holds two Masters and a PhD, was “a successful investment adviser and worked in Russia from 2004-2007,” and — the part that really didn’t get much play by the mainstream outlets — has a long history of helping the FBI and CIA in counter-Russia investigations.
“It’s been reported that you assisted the FBI years ago in the case of corporate espionage by a Russian spy case. Is that true?” asked Attkisson.
“I had alluded to the fact that I’d helped out CIA and FBI going back decades,” Carter responded, citing relationships he developed in his time in the military as aiding him in those endeavors.
“So the theory was, at the time, that a guy who had helped the FBI and CIA in the past, including with potential spy cases, himself became a spy while being watched by the FBI?” asked Attkisson.
“It’s just so outrageous, preposterous,” Carter responded. “Where do you even begin?”
Page’s involvement with the Trump campaign clearly made him a target for the infamous Democrat-funded “dossier,” the claims of which have never been verified and, importantly in Carter’s case against the feds, were not verified when it was used as rationale for securing a FISA warrant to spy on Carter for a full year.
Full Measure notes that Yahoo News was first to publish a story during the 2016 campaign attempting to link Page to Russian agents, which Page alleges was part of a government-orchestrated attempt to smear the campaign generally and him specifically.
“When you felt you were being targeted or became aware of this, you wrote a letter to then FBI director James Comey,” said Attkisson. “Tell me about that.”
“Literally that weekend, so this outrageous Yahoo News article came out on Friday September 23rd, 2016,” he said.
“About the opposition research dossier that implicated Donald Trump and you in all types of outrageous behavior?” Attkisson asked for clarification.
“Yeah. And so I sent a letter to Director Comey over that weekend and just explaining, telling him reality, just how absolutely outrageous this whole thing is,” said Page. “And I mentioned in there, again that’s why I brought up the fact that I had helped CIA and FBI over many years, and I said we’ve had long conversations with the intelligence community, if you have any questions, I mean this is just so implausible on the face, but if you have any questions about it whatsoever, please do not hesitate to contact me. And that’s essentially the message. And what’s interesting is over the next two months, both the next month in October 2016 and then again January 2017 they put in these FISA warrants.”
Those warrants were for wiretaps, Page explained, which they’d use to track his communication for a year, despite the only basis for the allegations against him being based in an unverified, partisan dossier.
Attkisson stressed that our intelligence agencies are supposed to have “evidence in hand” to take the “drastic step of a privacy invasion,” yet all they really had was the dossier and reports based on unsubstantiated leaked information that appears to trace back to the dossier. The feds ended up getting four wire tap warrants of 90 days each to surveil Page.
During the interview, Page revealed that he has never even spoken with Trump.
“Had you met him?” Attkisson asked, referencing Trump.
“I never met him at all. No,” said Page. Asked if he still hadn’t met him, he replied, “Nope. Never.” Not even on the phone, he said.
Attkisson noted that when the FBI is granted the ability to surveil a citizen, it “allows itself to also surveil everyone who’s in touch with you and everyone who’s in touch with those people. At least two layers back.” That “two layers back” would mean that the FBI could have been able to monitor the communications of people that were in direct contact with Trump, thus monitoring Trump himself through those connections, Attkisson notes.
Page is now suing the federal government for what he says is the use of the media to spread false information about him.
Related: Ex-CBS Reporter Calls Out Media, FBI: Time To Apologize To Trump, And A Lot Of Other People