When and if Devin Nunes decides to let the House intelligence committee do—what’s that thing again? … Its job—Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff would very much like to have a chat with Carter Page.
"He's certainly a person of interest, and I think at the appropriate time, we are going to want him to come before the committee," Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the panel, told anchor Chris Hayes on MSNBC.
It’s a good thing that Schiff is asking about Carter Page, because Chairman Nunes has never heard of the man.
By far the most stunning part of the Q&A came when Corn asked Nunes about Trump campaign advisers Roger Stone and Carter Page, both key figures in this investigation, both widely reported to have had direct contact with the Russian hackers themselves and the Russian ambassador. Nunes reply? “I don’t know those people.”
Though Trump now claims that Carter Page was just a hanger on, it would still be good to sit him down in a witness chair. Let us count the reasons why.
There’s that time that Page gave documents on US sanctions to a Russian spy?
A former campaign adviser for Donald Trump met with and passed documents to a Russian intelligence operative in New York City in 2013.
And the time when Page, apparently along with everyone on Trump’s team, had a meeting with the Russian ambassador?
Thursday night in a sudden reversal, Carter Page finally admitted to Chris Hayes that he did in fact meet with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak the week of the Republican National Convention.
There’s the deal that would reward Page an insane amount of cash for helping to sell part of Russia’s state-owned oil and gas company.
A dossier with unverified claims about President Donald Trump's ties to Russia contained allegations that Igor Sechin, the CEO of Russia's state oil company, offered former Trump ally Carter Page and his associates the brokerage of a 19% stake in the company in exchange for the lifting of US sanctions on Russia.
And how a deal just that size mysteriously happened right after that offer.
Russia just surprised most observers by selling off 20 percent of Rosneft, it’s state controlled oil company, to a group of Middle Eastern investors for $11.3 billion.
There’s the speech Carter Page delivered in Moscow showing that it’s possible to be mendacious, perfidious, and bone-crushingly boring at the same time.
Or maybe it was how he was recruited by the SVR …
Russian intelligence operatives tried in 2013 to recruit an American businessman and eventual foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign who is now part of the F.B.I. investigation into Russia’s interference into the American election, according to federal court documents and a statement issued by the businessman.
But whatever the reason, there is something the Russians discovered about Carter Page that shouldn’t be forgotten if he sits down to testify.
In a transcript of the conversation included in the court documents, Mr. Podobnyy tells his Russian colleague that Mr. Page frequently flies to Moscow and is interested in earning large sums of money. Mr. Page was apparently interested in striking a deal with Gazprom, the Russian state-run oil firm, according to the transcript. Mr. Podobnyy called Mr. Page an “idiot” but said he was enthusiastic.