Former Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page, who has come under scrutiny in the investigation of Russian election interference, told a House committee that he sought permission for a July 2016 trip to Moscow from senior Trump campaign officials, and reported to other Trump officials about the trip when he returned.
It’s long been known that Page traveled to Moscow in July 2016, but he has said it was in his private capacity, unrelated to his role with the Trump campaign.
Page, whose sworn testimony was released Monday night, told the House Intelligence Committee last week that he sought permission to make the trip from campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and also notified Hope Hicks, who is now the White House communications director.
Lewandowski told Page he was clear to go on the trip as long as the travel was not associated with his work on the campaign, Page told the committee.
However as it turns out Page was kind of representing the campaign to some degree on the trip, and he DEFINITELY talked with Russian government officials about the campaign. So that sort makes it feel that it WAS associated with his work on the campaign.
Reporter Natasha Bertrand also points out that some of Page's testimony reinforces the documentation in the Christopher Steele Russian dossier.
Courtesy of Business Insider:Steele dossier panning out: Page met w/ both the head of investor relations for Rosneft AND members of Russia’s PA while in Moscow last July http://pic.twitter.com/k2mCTLIGUP— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) November 7, 2017
Page revealed during his testimony that he met with both members of Russia's presidential administration and with the head of investor relations at the state-owned Russian oil giant Rosneft during his trip to Moscow last July.
He also congratulated members of the Trump campaign's foreign policy team on July 14 for their "excellent work" on the "Ukraine amendment" — a reference to the Trump campaign's decision to "intervene" to water down a proposed amendment to the GOP's Ukraine platform.
The original amendment proposed that the GOP commit to sending "lethal weapons" to the Ukrainian army to fend off Russian aggression. But it was ultimately altered to say "provide appropriate assistance" before it was included in the party's official platform. The dossier alleges that the campaign "agreed to sideline" the issue of Russia's invasion of Crimea and interference in eastern Ukraine in exchange for dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Apparently Page was a confounding witness who attempted to plead with Fifth in response to some questions and then became quite chatty in response to others.
He also provided testimony which often seemed to contradict itself, and he probably perjured himself on several occasions.Adam Schiff Asking Carter Page Whether He's Invoking The Fifth Amendment Is Something Else. http://pic.twitter.com/aNchV7MnTG— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 7, 2017
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff confronted Page with an email he wrote on July 8 from Moscow to Trump campaign adviser J.D. Gordon saying that he had received "incredible insights and outreach from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the presidential administration here."
Former British spy Christopher Steele wrote in the dossier that an "official close to Presidential Administration Head, S. IVANOV, confided in a compatriot that a senior colleague in the Internal Political Department of the PA, DIVYEKIN (nfd) also had met secretly with PAGE on his recent visit."
According to that official in the dossier, Diveykin told Page that the Kremlin had a dossier of kompromat on Hillary Clinton that they wanted to give to the Trump campaign.
In his congressional testimony, Page denied meeting with Diveykin and said the "senior members of the presidential administration" that he had referred to in his email was actually just "a brief, less-than-10-second chat with [deputy Prime Minister] Arkadiy Dvorkovich."
He said his mention of "legislators" was a reference to "a few people who were shaking hands" with him in passing.
Like I said, "enlightening."
Source http://ift.tt/2AgMpLh
