Schiff has no regrets about falsely accusing Carter Page

FPI / December 22, 2019

Trump 2016 campaign adviser Carter Page was pursued mercilessly in the Russia “collusion” hoax. He was put under surveillance after the FBI used bogus information from the Steele dossier to obtain a wiretap.

Carter Page has never been charged. The Mueller Report essentially exonerated him.

Yet Rep. Adam Schiff says he has no sympathy for Page and no regrets for writing a memo defending the FBI’s abusive tactics.

During a Friday interview on PBS, Schiff said: “I have to say Carter Page came before our committee and for hours of his testimony, denied things that we knew were true, later had to admit them during his testimony.”

Schiff did not explain why he thought Page gave misleading remarks during his Nov. 2, 2017 testimony.

“It’s hard to be sympathetic to someone who isn’t honest with you when he comes and testifies under oath. It’s also hard to be sympathetic when you have someone who has admitted to being an adviser to the Kremlin.”

Page was never accused in the Mueller report of making false statements to Congress.

Page responded on Twitter, saying he considers Schiff to be “more untrustworthy and dangerous” than the former FBI lawyer alleged in the Department of Justice Inspector General report to have altered an email about Page.

Critics say Schiff referring to someone as dishonest is laughable. The California Democrat continued to be a major proponent of the Steele dossier long after it was proven to be phony.

In his report, DOJ IG Michael Horowitz found the FBI withheld exculpatory information in applications seeking Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Page.

Horowitz’s report noted that the FBI relied heavily on the Steele dossier in the FISA applications. The dossier asserted Page was a Russian agent.

But Horowitz found the FBI was unable to corroborate any of the dossier’s allegations about Page. The report also said a major source for dossier author Christopher Steele told the FBI in January 2017 that parts of the dossier were exaggerated and misrepresented.

FBI agents who investigated Page also withheld information about the Trump aide’s longstanding relationship with the CIA. Page was an “operational contact” for the agency, but FBI agents failed to disclose that to the FISA court.

Schiff and other House Intelligence Democrats released a memo on Feb. 24, 2018 which defended the FBI’s surveillance of Page, as well as the bureau’s handling of the Steele dossier.

Schiff wrote in the memo that “FBI and DOJ officials did not abuse the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process, omit material information, or subvert this vital tool to spy on the Trump campaign.”

Asked in the PBS interview if he regretted writing the memo, Schiff said: “Well, I don’t regret that because at the time that’s what we knew.”

Many reports have asserted that it was well known "at the time" that the accusations against Page in Steele’s dossier were not verified.

Horowitz’s report says: “[B]ecause the FBI did not have information corroborating the Steele reporting relied upon in the Carter Page FISA application, it was particularly important for the application to articulate to the court the FBI’s assessment of the reliability of the source.”

Free Press International