The FBI convinced a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge last summer to allow the agency to monitor the communications of Carter Page, then-national security adviser to Donald Trump.
A report published Tuesday evening found the intelligence organization had obtained a secret court order to watch Page as part of its investigation to see if Russia was working with Trump’s campaign through this potential foreign agent — though at the time the probe was not publicly known.
“This confirms all of my suspicions about unjustified, politically motivated government surveillance,” Page told the Washington Post on Tuesday. “I have nothing to hide.”
President Trump claimed earlier this year that the Obama administration spied on his campaign, but never disclosed the nature by which such operations took place.
The House Intelligence Committee is investigating possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s team but has not found evidence of anything, while the committee, along with its partner in the Senate, continues to look into Democrats’ charges.
Meanwhile, both committees have not found anything to confirm Trump’s accusation that former President Barack Obama directed anyone in his administration to phone tap Trump or his associates.
Trump’s campaign team granted permission for then-adviser on national security issues Carter Page to visit Moscow last July where he delivered a speech criticizing U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Page was first exposed last month as one of four Trump campaign members who had contact with Russia during the election. Shortly afterward, PBS host Judy Woodruff asked Page if he had had any meetings last year with Russian officials inside or outside Russia. Page said no.
Page is a former Merrill Lynch investment banker who has stated he spent three years in Moscow arranging energy deals. A recent Politico story found no evidence of his work history doing such a job in Russia.
During his trip to Russia last summer, Page stayed for three days and met with scholars and professors following his graduation speech.
The former campaign member left the team in September after it became public that he had given a speech in Moscow that went against current U.S. foreign policy.
Later in February, Page and J.D. Gordon, both staffers on Trump’s national security advisory committee, said they had spoken with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at a diplomacy conference in Cleveland.
