War of Words: Former Trump Campaign Staffer Blasts Senate Committee’s ‘Show Trial’

A war of words has erupted between the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a former outside foreign policy consultant to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Carter Page, who by all accounts has never met the president face-to-face, was alleged to have been a go-between for the campaign and Russian foreign intelligence officials in the much-maligned Christopher Steele dossier. Although there has been no proof any of the allegations in the dossier were true, it seems the Senate committee is treating Page as a hostile witness.

The center of the current controversy are documents the committee says it needs from Page prior to his testimony before an open session. The senators say the documents are necessary for a thorough investigation; Page, on the other hand, has suggested the investigation is little more than a “show trial” and political witch hunt.

Friday, committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. and vice chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va. released the following statement regarding the level of Page’s cooperation in their investigation:

Three days ago, Carter Page told Fox News he was cooperating with the Committee’s investigation into Russian activities surrounding the 2016 Election. Today we have learned that may not be the case.

The Committee’s April 28, 2017, letter asks Mr. Page to provide requested materials to the Committee by certain dates. Should Mr. Page choose to not provide the material requested by those dates, the Committee will consider its next steps at that time.

Mr. Page has indicated in correspondence to the Committee that he looks forward to working with us on this matter, and that our cooperation will help resolve what he claims are false allegations. For that to happen, Mr. Page must supply the requested documents to the Committee. As our letter indicated, the requested documents must be provided in advance of any interviews the Committee may conduct.

The Committee will continue to pursue its inquiry into issues surrounding Russia’s involvement in the 2016 Presidential election; it is our expectation that Mr. Page will live up to his publicly-expressed cooperation with our effort.

Page lashed back, hard. In his own letter to the committee, he wrote:

I am writing in response to your subject press release from Friday. As an administrative note before I address your latest public pronouncement, I would like to make sure you are aware that I have left multiple messages for several members of your Senate Select Committee on Intelligence staff. As you may recall, each of your two respective form letters from recent months included the following text: “If you have any questions, please contact either Chris Joyner, Staff Director, or Mike Casey, Minority Staff Director, at 202- …” Related to a wide range of questions that I have, I left the first such message in person on March 6, 2017 at SSCI’s blockade on the second floor of the Hart Senate Office Building when I hand-delivered my response to your initial correspondence. I have many questions so subsequently followed up with several phone and email messages. In each instance, your offers appear to have been some sort of theoretical proposition since I still haven’t heard back from anyone over 63 days later. Rather than answering my questions as you had proposed on multiple occasions, I have only received your massive data dump request of April 28, 2017 which would cover redundant, highly irrelevant information collected in further violation of my civil rights given the unjustified FISA warrants which already targeted me last year. It seems logical that having an actual conversation like human beings might prove more productive, as you had originally offered and in contrast to the Big Brother methods of the Obama Administration in 2016. I am increasingly coming to understand that these proceedings have thus far followed the precedent of prior show trials, which have historically been used as a means of intimidation. In close keeping with the lawless tactics of the Clinton/Obama regime which were in place until Jan. 20, 2017, such strategies also closely align with their ongoing quest to hurt the new administration as well as the millions of patriotic Americans like me who support our leadership and this country. I have seen nothing that leads me to believe that the questions posed on April 28 are based on anything more than the continued false allegations that their regime’s associates ginned up last year.

Given the inability or unwillingness of your staff to have an actual conversation despite these multiple unanswered requests to address my open questions particularly concerning the growing list of civil liberty violations which have occurred thus far, I would like to directly respond to your main comments from the press release of last week. Related to your points on Friday and whereas it seems that you have still continued to be unwittingly manipulated by the corrupt lies of the Clinton/Obama regime, I believe this additional background information might help you belatedly understand reality.

Page then went point-by-point through their press release to refute many of their allegations. He also reminded the committee that since he first offered to testify, it has been revealed that he was the target of a FISA warrant and that his identity was illegally leaked to the media.

“To put in context how outrageous your groundless comprehensive data requests would be, consider the case study of General Flynn,” he wrote. “Frustrated in the wake of her failed attempt to circumvent the long-delayed introduction of effective immigration policies in the United States, de facto anarchist Sally Yates instead turned her attention to destroying the career of a distinguished American. Although I have never met General Flynn, his recent experiences make clear that any minor variation between his memory of a conversation during a vacation on the beaches of the Dominican Republic vs. the in-depth transcript kept by the deep state is framing him for severe personal damage. Comparing that one relatively recent conversation by General Flynn to the two years of records and recollections you’re instead asking me for helps illustrate how illogical your proposition is.”

Page also used the words “groundless” and “distasteful” to describe the document request. The committee has not yet scheduled a hearing with Page, citing the lack of documents, further compounding the war of words. {eoa}