In New Testimony, Carter Page Forced To Reveal Meetings With Russian Officials | HuffPost Latest News - Action News
Home WebMail Monday, November 4, 2024, 08:42 PM | Calgary | 6.3°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Posted: 2017-11-07T03:34:08Z | Updated: 2017-11-07T15:47:36Z

WASHINGTON The House Intelligence Committee on Monday released more than 200 pages of testimony from its closed-door interview last week with Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the Donald Trump presidential campaign.

The document presents the clearest picture yet of Pages interactions with Russian officials, including his interactions with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich . Pages testimony appears to contradict his public statements that he had no meaningful encounters during a trip he took to Russia in 2016 while he was a member of the Trump campaigns foreign policy team.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the committee, said Monday evening that Page was forced to acknowledge that he communicated with high-level Russian officials while in Moscow during his trip, noting that Page also admitted notifying the fact of his meetings to his campaign supervisors.

Perhaps most important, Page after being presented with an email he sent to his campaign supervisors, and which he did not disclose to the Committee prior to the interview and despite a subpoena from the Committee detailed his meetings with Russian government officials and others, and said that they provided him with insights and outreach that he was interested in sharing with the campaign, Schiff said in a statement following the transcripts release. Pages invitation to Moscow and his July 2016 trip was paid for by Russian sponsors and followed his appointment as a Trump campaign foreign policy advisor.

Pages invitation to Moscow and his July 2016 trip was paid for by Russian sponsors and followed his appointment as a Trump campaign foreign policy advisor.

- Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.)

He has previously maintained in public that he did not met with any Russian officials during his trip. Page told The New York Times, which first reported Pages admission to the committee, that his interaction with Dvorkovich was limited to a very brief hello .

During the testimony, Schiff repeatedly questioned Page about an email obtained by the committee in which he told Trump campaign officials he had incredible insights following his trip.

On July 8, of last year, you wrote in an email to the campaign that you had incredible insights and outreach that you received from Russian legislators and senior members, plural, of the Presidential administration, Schiff said in his questioning. Were you being honest in your communication with the campaign? Are you being honest in your testimony? Because it doesnt seem possible for both to be true.

Page characterized the encounters he was referring to as just having a warm conversation with individuals and insights he gathered from listening to public speeches.

The transcript released by the committee Monday was the result of a seven-hour interview last Thursday. The interview was conducted in a private setting but with the understanding that the committee would later release a transcript.

Page, who did not bring a lawyer to the interview, has declined to turn over documents the committee has subpoenaed. At various points in the interview, committee members struggle to clarify whether Page is invoking his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.

According to Page, he was introduced to the Trump campaign by Ed Cox, chairman of the New York Republican State Committee, after sending Cox an email in December 2015 expressing interest in volunteering for the campaign. Cox introduced him to then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Page told lawmakers. In March 2016, Trump listed Page as one of his foreign policy advisers in an interview with The Washington Post. Page told the committee he has never been paid for his work with the Trump campaign.

Page said his main point of contact on the campaign was J.D. Gordon, who last year helped soften the Republican Party s platform on arming Ukraine.

Throughout the interview, Page described himself as a victim of civil rights abuses, misinformation, reputation-damaging leaks, libel, defamation, government surveillance and even death threats. Page is suing several media outlets, including HuffPosts parent company, for their coverage of him and his ties to Russia.

Page traveled to Russia at least twice last year once in July and again in December.

At the outset of the interview, Page told Schiff he had no private meetings with senior Russian government officials during his travels to Moscow last year. But Schiff presented Page with the July 2016 email to the Trump campaign that suggested otherwise:

In a private conversation, Dvorkovich expressed strong support for Mr. Trump and a desire to work together toward devising better solutions in response to the vast range of current international problems, Page wrote in the email, which Schiff read aloud during the interview.

Page then admitted to writing that email but insisted the interaction with the Russian official lasted only five to 10 seconds.

Page also met with academics Andrej Krickovic and Shlomo Weber in Moscow. During the trip, Page gave a lecture criticizing the United States often-hypocritical focus on democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change when dealing with Russia, China and central Asia.

Your Support Has Never Been More Critical

Other news outlets have retreated behind paywalls. At HuffPost, we believe journalism should be free for everyone.

Would you help us provide essential information to our readers during this critical time? We can't do it without you.

You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest we could use your help again . We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you.

Whether you give once or many more times, we appreciate your contribution to keeping our journalism free for all.

You've supported HuffPost before, and we'll be honest we could use your help again . We view our mission to provide free, fair news as critically important in this crucial moment, and we can't do it without you.

Whether you give just one more time or sign up again to contribute regularly, we appreciate you playing a part in keeping our journalism free for all.

Support HuffPost

Page floated the idea of Trump traveling to Moscow in his place in a May 2016 email to Walid Phares, a fellow former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. Page told lawmakers he was unaware of George Papadopoulos efforts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian government officials. (Papadopoulos, once a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, pleaded guilty last week to lying to the FBI and is now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller s Russia investigation.)

Days before he flew to Moscow in July, Page mentioned his travel plans to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions , who was heading Trumps foreign policy advisory team, Page told lawmakers.

Page returned to Moscow in December, shortly after Trumps surprise victory in the presidential election. Dvorkovich stopped by during that trip, Page said. He also met with Andrey Baranov, the head of investor relations at the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft, an unnamed bank analyst and an unnamed person who worked at Gazprom, a Russian energy company.

Asked by Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), also a member of the House committee, why he traveled to Russia even as the country was accused of interfering in the U.S. election process, Page responded: Because Im trying to live my life.