President Trump has said it looks more and more like his campaign for the 2016 presidential election had been ‘illegally spied upon’.
Trump issued the tweet early Sunday morning after saying documents about his former presidential campaign adviser Carter Page confirmed with little doubt that the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation had misled the courts.
The FBI released documents on Saturday related to the surveillance of Page as part of an investigation into whether he conspired with the Russian government to undermine the election.
Page has denied being an agent of the Russian government and has not been charged with any crime.
President Trump tweeted early Sunday morning that it looks more and more like his campaign for the 2016 presidential election had been ‘illegally spied upon’
In his tweets, Trump also took aim at defeated Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, her party’s governing body.
‘Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC,’ he said, referring to the Democratic National Committee.
‘Republicans must get tough now. An illegal Scam!’
Referring to the Carter Page documents, he said: ‘As usual they are ridiculously heavily redacted but confirm with little doubt that the Department of ‘Justice’ and FBI misled the courts. Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!’
The 412 pages, mostly heavily redacted, included surveillance applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and warrants surrounding the investigation into Page.
‘The FBI believes that Page has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian Government,’ the surveillance application filed in October 2016 said.
The documents released include applications and renewal warrants filed in 2017 after Trump took office.
Trump also said documents about his former presidential campaign adviser Carter Page confirmed with little doubt that the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation had misled the courts
The documents released said ‘the FBI believes that the Russian Government’s efforts are being coordinated with Page and perhaps other individuals associated with’ Trump’s campaign.
It added Page ‘has established relationships with Russian Government officials, including Russian intelligence officers.’
After a redaction, the application to wiretap Page included a partial sentence: ‘… undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law.’
The surveillance of Page became a contentious matter between Republican and Democratic lawmakers earlier this year.
Republican lawmakers have contended that the FBI made serious missteps when it sought a warrant to monitor Page in October 2016 shortly after he left the Trump campaign.
The original FISA warrant application (shown in part above) and three renewal applications were released by the FBI on Saturday after a court battle with news organizations
Unredacted portions of the documents show the FBI telling the intelligence court that Page ‘has been collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government’
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday that ‘these documents provide clear evidence of ‘Russia’s coordination with Carter Page,’ a high-ranking Trump campaign official, ‘to undermine and improperly and illegally influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.”
Last week, a federal grand jury charged 12 Russian intelligence officers with hacking Democratic computer networks in 2016, in the most detailed U.S. accusation yet that Moscow meddled in the presidential election to help Trump.
Earlier this year, 13 other Russians and three Russian companies were indicted on charges of conspiring to interfere with the election.
Michael Horowitz, the department’s inspector general, said in March that he would review whether the FBI and the Justice Department followed proper procedures when they applied for a warrant to secretly conduct surveillance on Page and his ties to Russia.
Republicans have claimed that the FBI used in part a dossier compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to justify the warrant, and failed to disclose to the court that Steele was employed by a firm funded by Democrats to do opposition research on Trump’s business dealings.
The FBI added the bolded footnote seen above to its renewal applications, noting that it had terminated its relationship with Steele (Source #1). Candidate #1 refers to Trump