Carter Page: Subject Of A FISA Warrent

Ken AshfordL'Affaire Russe, Trump & AdministrationLeave a Comment

It has been a weird week in news, as the nation focuses on United Airlines and its treatment of passengers.  It’s a nice break from the Trump-Russia scandal, I suppose, but the steady drumbeat of that scandal continues, as each week offers up more revelations.

WaPo reports that Carter Page, whose credentials Trump once bragged on like a proud grandpa when he wanted to show that his campaign foreign policy shop had cred, was the subject of a FISA warrant because he was suspected of acting as an agent of a foreign government: Russia. The warrant was subsequently renewed.

That. Is. A. Big. Deal.

When Republicans ask for evidence of a wrongdoing, you can specifically say: Carter Page, who Trump mentioned by name as an adviser to the campaign, was the subject of a FISA warrant.

Now, it is true that there is nothing there, i.e. that the warrant was based on bad evidence, or that the FBI found nothing. But when you combine this piece of news with these other things….

  • Flynn lying about his contacts with the Russians and resigning in disgrace;
  • Campaign chairman Paul Manafort being cut loose because of his shady Kremlin ties;
  • Sessions perjuring himself in his senate hearings about meetings with Russia;
  • Kushner omitting meetings with Russians on his security clearance disclosure form;
  • Nunes running interference for the White House on “unmasking” that we now know was legitimate; and
  • Pretty much everyone in Trump’s orbit being involved with Russia on some level

… it’s a little hard to be so dismissive of the problem.

Maybe it all begins and ends with Flynn and Page and Manafort.  Who knows?  But this scandal is not nothing. And there could be lots more to come.

And this is a little scary: