Carter Page and the Trump/Russia Connection - Revisited
"Either this nation will kill racism, or racism will kill this nation." (S. Jonas, 2018)
Introduction
About a year and a half ago, I published this column on a figure then seemingly insignificant in the then burgeoning understanding of the Trump/Russia Conspiracy. For the most part, except on Fox"News," especially Hannity who kept recycling him over and over, Page has disappeared from the history/analysis of the scandal. But now with publication of the Justice Department's Inspector General's Report (1) on the totality of the FBI's Trump/Lawlessness Investigation he has resurfaced, big time. In essence the IG said that the FBI investigation of the Trump/Russia connection, the main focus of his study was pretty OK. But he did throw Trump/Barr/Hannity a bone in criticizing the methodology behind the obtaining of one particular FISA warrant on Carter Page, after he officially left the Trump campaign.
About the primary conclusion of the Report, even Lindsey Graham (1) had this to say (and Trump must be fuming about this one):
"Mr. Graham opened the hearing by acknowledging that the government of Russia - not Ukraine - sought to interfere with the 2016 election, and he did not quarrel with Mr. Horowitz's finding that the F.B.I. had a legitimate basis to open a full counterintelligence investigation into links between Russia and people associated with the Trump campaign."
But, using one of their WMD's (Weapons of Mass Distraction), the Trumpublicans(C) are screaming "Look, over here," at problems that have been identified with one FISA warrant on Page, issued by a Republican-appointed FISA judge, after Page had left the Trump campiang, and well after the first FISA warrant had been obtained on him --- in 2013. And now to my original column on Page, unedited (but without the illustrations, which can be found by clicking on the link to that original.