Most of the Trump campaign associates under scrutiny in the federal probe into Russia’s election interference have lawyered up and cut off direct contact with the media. Carter Page, a short-lived campaign adviser with connections to Russia, has taken the opposite tack, giving on-camera interviews, writing copious letters to Congress, and, in his latest effort, writing a book that promises to spill intimate details about the ongoing and sensitive investigation.
Page is shopping around a 46-page prospectus for a “landmark volume” on the 2016 campaign, tentatively titled “Politics, Lies And The Wiretap: Inside The Fight To End The 70-Year Cold War?”
The goal, Page wrote in an email to news outlets, is to counteract the “vast wave of false information discharged by the Clinton-Obama-Comey regime” about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election—which Page and Trump both deny—and the “vicious hunt” to discover whether any member of the Trump campaign assisted in that foreign effort. Page envisions his project as a conservative response to forthcoming books by ousted FBI director James Comey and former President Barack Obama.
Page had a brief tenure as a national security adviser to the campaign before he left amid questions about his July 2016 visit to Moscow, where he gave a talk urging the United States to lift sanctions against Russia; his investments in Russian energy giant Gazprom; and his work in Russia during the 1990s. The Washington Post reported that the FBI has conducted hours of interviews with Page about those ties, and Page told the newspaper that he had no lawyer present during those conversations.
His first-person account of the FBI interviews, as well as his allegations that he was illegally wiretapped by members of the Obama administration, are slated to be part of the book. U.S. officials have told the Post that in summer 2016, the FBI and Justice Department obtained a Foreign International Surveillance Court warrant to monitor Page’s communications because there was probable cause to believe he was acting on Russia’s behalf.
Page’s prospectus features the same grandiose language and attention to detail displayed in the many letters that he addresses to congressional intelligence committees and forwards to the media. There is a chart detailing the “Clinton/Obama regime toolbox in the 2016 election,” six pages of footnotes and even four proposed alternate titles (standouts include “Cracking the Nut Job: One Man’s Battle against the Obama Administration’s Corrupt Intelligence Community Tyrants” and “Cold COC’ed: Clashes with the Clinton-Obama-Comey Regime and the Restoration of American Leadership”).
Page told TPM via email that he is working on the project with a “team of people” and is in “initial discussions with a range of publishers, from the major houses.”
He said that the Trump administration has “no problem with me telling my story” and that the FBI is also “very supportive” of his project (The White House did not respond to TPM’s request for comment.)
The possible legal consequences of writing about an ongoing federal investigation he is a part of don’t concern Page, either. He said he has “zero legal liability” because he’s “never done anything wrong.” What he does expect from the project, which garnered write-ups in a handful of publications, is a sizable payout.
“After Drama Queen Comey has already told his fictional story for free on public access TV, I find it hard to imagine that my book which finally reveals the real truth about the criminal activities committed during the witch hunt would have a lower valuation than his next batch of forthcoming fairytales,” Page said.
