Former Trump foreign policy aide Carter Page said Sunday that U.S. intelligence informant Stefan Halper “intensified” communications with him as the FBI worked to obtain a secret surveillance warrant to monitor Page, shortly after he and Halper met for the first time at a research institute symposium in Cambridge, England, in July 2016.
Page’s remarks on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” followed a Justice Department court filing Thursday that provided more details about a crucial period just before Halper allegedly sprang into action to seek more information on future National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Within days of a January 2016 Flynn phone call to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak referenced in the court filing, Russian-born U.K. academic Svetlana Lokhova said Halper suddenly contacted her to gain information on Flynn.
Asked about the timing, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News that “nothing is a coincidence” when it comes to Halper, and that Kislyak was likely under U.S. surveillance.
“I had a longstanding relationship with Professor Halper,” Page told host Maria Bartiromo. “I always believe in ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ but my conversations with him intensified right in the month before my illegitimateFISA warrant in September 2016, when all these defamatory articles are being placed by the [Democratic National Committee].”
Page has sued he DNC and other actors for defamationrelated to accusations that he was colluding with Russian agents. The FBI, in its Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application, flatly called Page “an agent of a foreign power.” Page has not been charged with any wrongdoing despite months of surveillance, and the dossier that the FBI relied upon in its FISA application has largely been discredited as a political document rife with inaccuracies.
In its warrant application, the FBI assured the FISA court on numerous occasions that other sources independently corroborated the dossier’s claims but did not clearly state that the dossier’s author worked for a firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Page continued:
“Professor Halper was being very positive, you know, like a Harriet Tubman figure. He understands sort of the the injustices, or he presented himself as understanding that …… and I sort of trusted him.”
