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Trump-Russia: FBI releases Carter Page wiretap documents Trump-Russia: president reacts angrily to release of FBI Carter Page documents
(about 9 hours later)
The FBI has released documents related to the surveillance of former Trump presidential campaign adviser Carter Page as part of a probe into whether he conspired with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 US election. The FBI on Saturday released documents related to the surveillance of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, as part of an investigation into whether he conspired with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 US election.
The 412 pages, mostly heavily redacted and made public by the Federal Bureau of Investigation late on Saturday, included surveillance applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) and warrants surrounding the investigation into Page. A surveillance application filed in October 2016, a month before polling day, said: “The FBI believes that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government.”
“The FBI believes that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government,” says the surveillance application filed in October 2016 said. The documents released include applications and renewal warrants filed in 2017 after Trump took office. Page has denied being an agent of the Russian government and has not been charged with any crime. Page has denied being an agent of the Russian government and has not been charged with any crime.
Earlier Saturday on the New York Times reported it received a copy from the Justice Department after it and other news organisations filed suit. The documents include applications and renewal warrants filed in 2017, after Donald Trump took office. Trump denies collusion with Russia. On Sunday morning, the president duly responded to the release, accusing his own government of serious malpractice.
The documents released said “the FBI believes that the Russian government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with” Trump’s campaign. It added Page “has established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers.” The president wrote on Twitter that the documents were “ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of ‘Justice’ and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!”
Republicans lawmakers have contended that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor Page in October 2016 shortly after he left the Trump campaign. He added: “Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the [Democratic National Committee] … Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!”
The House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday that “these documents provide clear evidence of ‘Russia’s coordination with Carter Page,’ a high-ranking Trump campaign official, ‘to undermine and improperly and illegally influence the 2016 US presidential election’.” The 412 pages, mostly heavily redacted and made public by the FBI late on Saturday, included surveillance applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) and warrants surrounding the investigation into Page.
Last week a federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most detailed US accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the presidential election to help Trump. Earlier this year 13 other Russians and three Russian companies were indicted on charges of conspiring to interfere with the election. The documents released said “the FBI believes that the Russian government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with” Trump’s campaign. It added Page “has established relationships with Russian government officials, including Russian intelligence officers”.
Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, said in March that he would review whether the FBI and the Justice Department followed proper procedures when they applied for a warrant to secretly conduct surveillance on Page and his ties to Russia. Earlier Saturday the New York Times reported it received a copy of the documents from the justice department after it and other news organisations filed suit. Pointing to intense political wrestling over the documents, Trump credited the rightwing activist group Judicial Watch for “being successful in getting the Carter Page Fisa documents”.
Republicans have claimed that the FBI used in part a dossier compiled by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to justify the warrant, and failed to disclose to the court that Steele had been employed by a firm funded by Democrats to do opposition research on Trump’s business dealings. Republican lawmakers have contended that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor Page in October 2016, shortly after he left the Trump campaign.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday “these documents provide clear evidence of ‘Russia’s coordination with Carter Page’, a high-ranking Trump campaign official, ‘to undermine and improperly and illegally influence the 2016 US presidential election’.”
Michael Horowitz, the justice department’s inspector general, said in March that he would review whether the FBI and the department followed proper procedures when they applied for a warrant to secretly conduct surveillance on Page and his ties to Russia.
Republicans have claimed that the FBI used in part a dossier compiled by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to justify the warrant, and failed to disclose to the court that Steele had been employed by a firm paid by Democrats to do opposition research on Trump’s business dealings. The firm, Fusion GPS, was initially hired by a conservative website, the Washington Free Beacon, to conduct research on Republican candidates including Trump.
Clinton, who beat Trump by 3m ballots in the popular vote but lost in the electoral college, spoke in New York City on Saturday. She said Trump’s behaviour around his meeting with Vladmir Putin in Helsinki this week was a “mystery” and warned that tech sources had told her Russian attacks on the 2018 midterms could spread to electoral infrastructure.
Last week, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference and links between the Trump campaign and Moscow, a federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most detailed US accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the presidential election to help Trump.
Earlier this year, 13 other Russians and three Russian companies were indicted on charges of conspiring to interfere with the election.
Four former Trump aides have been indicted. Former national security adviser Michael Flynn and foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos are co-operating with authorities, as is Rick Gates, deputy to former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Manafort is in jail, awaiting trial on financial charges he denies.
Trump-Russia investigation
Trump administrationTrump administration
FBIFBI
SurveillanceSurveillance
US politics
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