Carter Page now says that it is “fortunate” that he did not brief Donald Trump when he served as a foreign policy adviser during the presidential campaign last year.
In a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Page references George Orwell’s “1984” and says that any conversations he would have had with Trump while on the campaign would have been used by “Big Brother,” the leader of the totalitarian state in Orwell’s dystopian classic.
“In retrospect and with the 1984-inspired governance standards employed in 2016, I consider it fortunate that I never briefed Mr. Trump,” Page wrote in the letter, which he provided to The Daily Caller.
“Given our respective, perceived ‘thoughtcrimes’ in questioning last year’s ruling party, it is indubitable that Big Brother would not have approved and likely would have clamped down even harder.”
Page, an energy consultant, sent the letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee because it is investigating Russia’s meddling in the election, including whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin during the campaign. Page has offered to cooperate with the committee and has said he is willing to testify publicly.
Page’s involvement with the Trump campaign has generated many theories among Trump critics about potential collusion with the Kremlin.
The businessman was largely unknown when Trump name-checked him as an adviser during an interview in March. He drew controversy in July after visiting Moscow to give a speech in which he criticized U.S. foreign policy. Trump’s critics pointed to the speech as evidence that Trump was either too soft on Russia or, worse, working in cahoots with the Kremlin. (RELATED: Here’s Who Introduced Carter Page To The Trump Campaign)
Many of those theories relied on the belief that Page was heavily involved in Trump campaign operations. But campaign officials have said that Page played a small role on the campaign. His policy proposals were never implemented and he never met Trump, they’ve said.
Page’s centrality to the FBI’s investigation of Russian meddling has slowly been revealed in the last couple of months. The FBI obtained a surveillance warrant on Page in September, after he officially left the campaign. He was also named in a dossier of Trump research provided to the FBI.
The dossier, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of a supporter of Hillary Clinton, alleges that Page met secretly with Russian operatives during his July trip to Moscow to hammer out a plan release damaging information about Clinton.
Page has denied the allegations and refers to Steele’s product as the “Dodgy Dossier.”
In his letter, entitled “Statement regarding the New Cold War’s secret police state,” Page blasts what he calls President Obama’s “domestic political intelligence operation.”
He refers to “vindictive wiretaps” ordered by the “Clinton/Obama regime.”
“Despite their defeat last November, they have since managed to use their power and influence in the media and among the foreign policy establishment to subvert the new Administration by pressing their outrageous accusations over the past half year,” Page writes.
In a separate response to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Page calls the surveillance warrant issued against him “completely unjustifiable” and asserts that the Obama administration targeted him for exercising his First Amendment rights.
Page also praises the Trump administration in his letter.
“All rhetoric and posturing aside, the new Administration’s first hundred days displayed enormous restraint and showed solid progress amidst world class political obstacles and the desperate, unabated lies of sore losers,” he writes. “As the truth continues to leak out, the second hundred days should now offer new prospects and real hope for America.”