Nice scoop here from the Washington Post reporting that the FBI sought a court order last summer to monitor Trump campaign aide Carter Page, and a judge found probable cause to approve that warrant as a part of the agency's inquiry into the campaign's Russian ties.
The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was probable cause to believe Page was acting as an agent of a foreign power, in this case Russia, according to the officials.
This is the clearest evidence so far that the FBI had reason to believe during the 2016 presidential campaign that a Trump campaign adviser was in touch with Russian agents. Such contacts are now at the center of an investigation into whether the campaign coordinated with the Russian government to swing the election in Trump’s favor.
The FBI investigation into the Trump camp's contacts with Russia began in July. Page was a former investment banker in Moscow who Trump named as one of his foreign policy advisers during an interview.
Apparently, Page wasn't particularly pleased to find out the FBI was spying on him.
“This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance,” Page said in an interview Tuesday. “I have nothing to hide.” He compared surveillance of him to the eavesdropping that the FBI and Justice Department conducted against civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Right, Page = MLK. The man is a walking talking PR blunder. Perhaps, he and Spicer can console each other.