The hits just keep on coming.
A former campaign adviser for Donald Trump met with and passed documents to a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013.
The adviser, Carter Page, met with a Russian intelligence operative named Victor Podobnyy, who was later charged by the US government alongside two others for acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government. The charges, filed in January 2015, came after federal investigators busted a Russian spy ring that was seeking information on US sanctions as well as efforts to develop alternative energy. Page is an energy consultant.
Page is one of the Trump advisers being investigated for suspicious connections to Russian targets. He met with the Russian ambassador during the Republican National Convention, last July, and visited Moscow last December. His responses to how many other contacts there might have been during the Trump campaign have been rather bizarre.
He’s also long criticized U.S. sanctions against Russia, which may or may not have everything to do with his similarly long list of business interests in the country, so it's not entirely surprising that he'd be someone Russian agents would meet with to seek "information" on those sanctions.
It's been quite the Monday. First we learn that Blackwater founder Eric Prince was working as unofficial connection between Russian officials and the Trump transition, and now we learn that Carter Page's affinity for popping up in American counterintelligence investigations goes back even farther than we thought.