A former Trump campaign adviser claims the Obama administration used false Russian propaganda underwritten by the Hillary Clinton campaign to illegally spy on him. The material, he says, was used to frame him as a Russian spy, in a scheme to derail Trump’s bid for the White House and later cripple his presidency.
The aide’s name is Carter Page, a native New Yorker and the main target of the controversial anti-Trump dossier, which is now the subject of a congressional and possibly criminal investigation. Depending on who you believe, he is either an agent for the Russian government or a victim of political espionage carried out by his own government.
According to the error-ridden, 35-page document, which nonetheless helped trigger the FBI’s Russia “collusion” probe, Page allegedly met during the campaign with two Kremlin officials to end US sanctions on Russia in exchange for bribes — a charge he has strenuously denied, including under oath.
In a wide-ranging Post interview, Page described the dubious dossier’s author, retired British spook Christopher Steele, as a “sleazeball” whom he claims had an ax to grind against Trump and was hungry for money. Steele pocketed at least $168,000 for his series of opposition-research memos accusing Trump and his aides of conspiring with Russian intelligence to hack the Clinton campaign and leak stolen e-mails.
On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) requested the Justice Department open a criminal investigation of Steele for making possible “false statements,” a development Page says “makes me increasingly confident that the justice system is going to do the right thing.”
Page contends that, in fact, it was the Obama government that interfered in the election to derail Trump by using Steele’s so-called “intelligence reports” to target him and the campaign for investigation — and even secret surveillance.
He compared Steele to the notorious Iraqi defector “Curveball,” who fed the US government bad intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s supposed WMD program.
Page also laced into the Washington media, who spread “falsehoods” from the dossier during the election — even though he maintains they knew at the time the document was a specious political product bought and paid for by the Clinton camp.
He complains prominent journalists kept a lid on Clinton’s role in the dossier until October of this year, when Congress subpoenaed the bank records of the opposition-research firm that Clinton’s lawyers hired.
“It was an open secret among many DC reporters,” Page said without naming names. “A few journalists shared the information (about Clinton’s involvement) with me back in September (2016).”
Page is suing various media who parroted the dossier’s charge against him, including Yahoo News and the Huffington Post, for libel. His is one of five libel lawsuits filed by plaintiffs accused by Steele and the dossier.
In court filings, defendant Steele admits his reports contain “unverified” information.
Page is also suing the US Broadcasting Board of Governors, which, he argues, under the direction of the Obama administration, broadcast in September and early November 2016 false charges from the dossier through two government propaganda networks it controls — Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe — in order to hurt the Trump campaign.
In a recent closed-door meeting with the House intelligence committee, Page repeatedly denied under oath ever even meeting the two Kremlin officials cited in he dossier. Page swore the only reason he was in Moscow at the time was to deliver a “benign” college commencement speech as he’d done in years past.
Page worked for Merrill Lynch for several years in Moscow, where he consulted on the privatization of Russia’s energy industry.
“Let me tell you, Carter page’s trip to Moscow — [there] was absolutely nothing there. That’s clear,” said Rep. Peter King (R-NY), a House intelligence panel member.
‘Let me tell you, Carter page’s trip to Moscow — [there] was absolutely nothing there’
- Rep. Peter King
Page, a former Navy officer, also swore he had nothing to do with the hacked Clinton campaign e-mails, the Steele dossier’s core allegation.
Since the election, FBI agents have grilled Page for several hours about the dossier’s allegations in multiple meetings in New York. And he recently appeared before special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury as part of his inquiry. He says Mueller’s office has not told him to expect an indictment.
“I have never received any indication from anyone that I’ve ever been under serious consideration for any possible charges,” Page said, adding that “all of the allegations were made up by political operatives.”
Former New York federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy agrees, arguing, “It has become increasingly clear that Steele’s claims about Page are untrue.” That said, he cautions that Page is still a known “apologist for the Putin regime,” who has supported ending US sanctions against Russia.
“I’m not pro-Russian, I’m pro-American, and I want what’s productive for the United States,” Page said. He explains that slapping sanctions on Russia is “counterproductive,” because it just “breeds ill will” and limits the two superpowers from working together on Syria and ISIS and counterterrorism, as well as on energy and other business developments. “There’s a lot of potential upside to having a constructive relationship with Moscow, establishing mutual respect.”
Page says he is confident that the truth about what the Obama administration did will surface this year as Congress ramps up its investigation into whether the Obama Justice Department and FBI improperly — perhaps criminally — mishandled the contents of the Clinton-funded dossier during the election by not verifying their accuracy before the court where they obtained a warrant to spy on him. The FBI’s deputy director reportedly told Congress last month that investigators could only confirm the fact that Page took a trip to Moscow in July 2016.
“The big dam holding back all the lies of 2016 that are still festering in DC is about to break in the New Year,” Page said.
CNN and other major media have reported that the dossier was used by the Obama Justice Department as a legal basis for obtaining a warrant from the so-called FISA court to electronically monitor Page. Seeking to confirm the media reports, Congress on Wednesday struck a deal with Justice to compel the FBI to turn over investigative records related to the dossier.
Page notes that introducing “false evidence in a court of law, including the FISA court, is illegal.”
Paul Sperry is a former Hoover Institution media fellow and author of several books, including the bestseller “Infiltration.”