Former Trump adviser Carter Page claims Obama targeted him as a 'dissident'

The Washington Post reported the FBI obtained FISA warrant against Page.

ByABC News
April 11, 2017, 11:48 PM

— -- A former Trump campaign adviser says he was targeted by the Obama administration because he was a "dissident."

New York business consultant Carter Page told ABC News that he was "so happy" to learn that The Washington Post reported on Tuesday night that the FBI obtained a secret FISA warrant to monitor his communication last summer as part of its ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government because it confirms that he had been the victim of "human rights violations."

"There had been prior reports, but I was so happy to hear that further confirmation is now being revealed," Page said. "It shows how low the Clinton/Obama regime went to destroy our democracy and suppress dissidents who did not fully support their failed foreign policy. It will be interesting to see what comes out when the unjustified basis for those FISA requests are more fully disclosed over time, including potentially the Dodgy Dossier -- a document that clearly is false evidence, which could represent yet another potential crime."

The unverified dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele claimed that Page, who has long advocated for a closer relationship between the U.S. and Russia, had ties to the Kremlin.

According to the Post, the FBI and the Justice Department convinced a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that there was sufficient evidence suggesting that Page could be acting as a Russian agent to authorize electronic surveillance in the heat of the 2016 presidential race.

Page has repeatedly denied allegations that he colluded with the Russians, and the White House did not issue a response to the Post's report, though members of the Trump administration have recently tried to minimize Page's contributions to the campaign, characterizing his role as brief and informal.

The FBI and the Department of Justice also declined to comment.

Last week, ABC News reported that Page had been targeted for recruitment as an intelligence source in 2013 by Russian spies promising favors in return for business opportunities in Russia. Page acknowledged that he was the anonymous "Male-1" identified in an unsealed FBI complaint detailing the spies' attempts to gather "economic intelligence" from Page and others to send back to Moscow.

Page, who cooperated with the FBI's investigation of the spies (one of whom, Evgeny Buryakov, was arrested, imprisoned and recently deported) told ABC News that any information he passed to the Russians was "immaterial."

“Any information I could give is, again, immaterial and all public information,” he said during a break in a New York energy conference.

ABC News' Jack Date contributed to this report.

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