Carter Page, Roger Stone Also Offer To Testify Before House Intel Committee

Two former Trump campaign advisers have offered to testify before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its investigation into Russia’s interference in the election.

Carter Page, who advised President Donald Trump’s campaign on foreign policy, and longtime Trump ally Roger Stone, both told CNN Friday that they want to address allegations that they communicated with Russian officials before the committee.

The development comes hours after committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) announced that Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, also offered to be interviewed.

“As Mr. Stone has repeatedly stated publicly since these matters have come to light, he is eager to voluntarily appear in open session in front of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence without the necessity of a subpoena,” Stone’s lawyer wrote in a letter to Nunes and ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) obtained by CNN. “Mr. Stone is anxious to redress the false and misleading way he has been portrayed by some on the Permanent Select Committee.”

Stone said Monday that his alleged contact with Russian operatives was “manufactured by the intelligence community.” He insisted that his communications with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker that U.S. officials believe is linked to the Russian government who published stolen Democratic National Committee emails online, were “benign.”

Page also said he wanted to “set the record straight,” writing in his own letter to Nunes and Schiff that he would “eagerly welcome the chance to speak with the Committee.”

Manafort, Page and Stone were reportedly being investigated by the FBI as part of the bureau’s probe into whether there was any “coordination” between Trump’s campaign staffers and Russian officials.

Schiff claimed this week that there is “more than circumstantial evidence” of collusion between the two.