FBI believed Carter Page, a member of Trump campaign, may have been a Russian agent
President Trump reacted by claiming the disclosed show his campaign illegally spied on
The Justice Department on Saturday released a previously classified application to wiretap former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who was under suspicion by the FBI of being a Russian agent.
The government had monitored Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and the heavily redacted documents were made public after media organisations sued for their release under the Freedom of Information Act.
President Trump on Sunday reacted by tweeting: “Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,” he said, referring to the Democratic National Committee. “Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!”
Referring to the Page documents, he wrote: “As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of “Justice” and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!”
The release of the document, along with three subsequent applications to renew the surveillance, was extraordinary and historic. In the four decades that FISA has been in effect, it’s not clear that any application for surveillance has ever been released.