Feds reportedly obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser during campaign
The FBI reportedly obtained a warrant last summer from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump.
Federal officials needed to present probable cause that Page was acting as a Russian agent to obtain the warrant from the FISA judge, the Washington Post reports. Its story is based on interviews with law enforcement and U.S. officials who spoke on the condition that they remain anonymous.
Page has not been accused of any crimes, the Post points out. In an interview with the Post, he compared the surveillance to FBI monitoring of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
“This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance,” Page told the Post. “I have nothing to hide.”
Page told Politico he was being investigated partly because of a speech he gave in Russia last July in which he criticized U.S. energy policy. Revelation of the FISA warrant, he said, shows he is being made a political scapegoat in the Russia probe.
Page has described himself as a junior member of Trump’s foreign policy advisory group. A former Trump campaign adviser told the Post he submitted several policy memos to the campaign, but his request for a meeting with Trump was never granted.
FBI Director James Comey has previously confirmed in House testimony that his agency is investigating the nature of links between Trump associates and the Russian government.
