The FBI believed that a former Trump campaign adviser had ties to Russia as it sought to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, top secret documents released to U.S. news organisations revealed on Saturday.
The October, 2016, application to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) named Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to the campaign of Donald Trump, according to the documents which The New York Times published. The newspaper, along with USA Today and others, filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to obtain the material, which the Justice Department released but with many details redacted.
Targeted recruitment
“The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government,” the initial FBI application says before it is blacked out and continues: “undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in violation of US criminal law”. Release of the documents comes just over one week after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton’s campaign to steal documents, which were then publicly released.
In the documents released on Saturday, the FBI cited a source which, it said, had a history of providing reliable information regardless of the source’s reasons for conducting research into Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia. Mr. Trump is not named in the document but identified only as “Candidate #1.”
A judge approved the initial wiretapping application, which was renewed three times by other judges, The New York Times said.
The FBI, in its initial application the month before Mr. Trump won the election, said it “believes that the Russian Government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with Candidate #1’s campaign.”
It added that “Page has established relationships with Russian Government officials, including Russian intelligence officers.” Mr. Page has not been charged. On Twitter on Saturday, he said the documents reflect “shocking” civil rights abuses and “complete ignorance” regarding Russia.
Trump’s reaction
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Mr. Trump said the release confirmed the surveillance of his campaign was a “Witch Hunt” because some of the information that led to the wiretapping was provided by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who was hired on behalf of the Clinton campaign in 2016.
But Mr. Trump’s tweets did not address the fact that the FISA application revealed its sourcing at length and was approved by a judge, before being renewed three more times by three other judges.
