It hasn’t been such a great time for Carter Page since he left the Trump administration, with the words “former Trump advisor” probably making the current administration happier and happier as more news comes out about his exploits. Not that everyone who Page left behind in the Trump administration are strict loyalists to the rules — but that’s another story. Page’s previous time in the spotlight included a confusing, convoluted, and altogether not very illuminating interview with Anderson Cooper about Trump’s ties with Russia — which are legion and confusing in their own right.
From the previous information circling, it was obvious that Page had at least some connections to Russia but until now it wasn’t obvious what the actual connections were or what his interactions with Russia specifically involved. “Until now” being the key word, as BuzzFeed News has confirmed that Page did indeed meet with a Russian spy in 2013. This confirmation comes thanks to a court filing related to the arrest of a known Russian operative named Victor Podobnyy, who the US government charged for “acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government” which means he is 100% a spy and somebody whose specific goals could include to interfere with US democracy. Page previously told BuzzFeed News multiple times that he had not met with a Russian intelligence operative and that if he did it was a purely unintentional circumstance.
In the filing, there are references to an individual coded as “Male-1” whom Podobnyy is trying to recruit to the Russian cause, and now Carter Page has admitted to BuzzFeed that he is indeed this individual and that he will cooperate with the ongoing Senate investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia should they need his help. While Page’s confirmed meeting with Podobnyy was years before Trump entered the fray of the 2016 election, there is no real way to confirm whether that meeting had any ramifications to the election at this time, as some of the people suspected of coordinating with Russian intelligence are assumed to have communicated with contacts at multiple points before and after Trump’s campaign officially began.
Page’s ties to the Trump administration are minimal anyway, with the Trump team separating themselves from Page with some immediacy after the rumors of his Russia ties began to surface. Whether that’s because the administration didn’t know about it and fired him when they found out or whether it’s because Page’s ties were just the tip of a seriously big iceberg is still mostly unclear. But with people like Michael Flynn offering to flip to the FBI for immunity and senior Blackwater employees attempting to open lines of communication with Russia, the fog might be beginning to clear and the full breadth of the controversy may be closer to being unearthed.
(via BuzzFeed News)