Gee, I wonder why Carter Page was on the FBI's radar

[Two months after the FBI interviewed him, a] letter, dated Aug. 25, 2013 , was sent by Page to an academic press during a dispute over edits to an unpublished manuscript he had submitted for publication, according to an editor who worked with Page.

“Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,” the letter reads.

[...]

Trump’s defenders argue that he was simply a low-level consultant to the campaign who has overstated his role as an adviser as well as his Russian contacts. The Steele dossier claims that during a trip to Moscow in July 2016, Page held secret meetings with a senior Kremlin official and a senior Putin ally that included conversations about helping Trump and hurting Hillary Clinton in the presidential campaign. The Steele dossier does not identify its sources and Page has denied any wrongdoing.

[...]

In January 2013, Page met a Russian diplomat named Victor Podobnyy at an energy conference in New York City, according to court documents. The two exchanged contact information, sent each other documents on energy policy and met several more times to discuss the topic, the documents allege. Two years later, in January of 2015, Podobnyy was charged in absentia — along with two other Russians — with working as a Russian intelligence agent under diplomatic cover.

Court records include a transcript of a conversation where Podobnyy talks about recruiting someone named “Male-1” by making “empty promises” about “connections in the [Russian] Trade Representation.” Page now acknowledges that he was “Male-1.” Podobnyy and one of the Russians had diplomatic immunity and left the U.S. The third Russian was arrested and eventually expelled from the U.S. in April 2017.

[...]

In interviews with reporters over the past year, Page has given inconsistent accounts about his contacts with the Russians.

[...]

[A reveiwer for an academic press] thinks Page was ultimately harmless in terms of national security threats. “I would never have seen him in the center of concern like this, or playing a role or being seen as an intermediary between the Russian government and a political candidate,” the editor said. “He struck me just as someone who had developed some strange academic views … and wanted to have them published,” the editor says.

“I just came to see him as a kook,” the editor says.

  Time

And a Russian who dealt with him called Page an idiot. Plus, he went to his Congressional grilling without a lawyer. And, you've seen him. If I were advising the Trump cabal on the issue of Carter Page, I'd tell them to go with Carter Page is mental, and stick with that. Who could dispute it?  It doesn't look so good that they brought him on to the team, but they also dumped him, so I think it's a good strategy.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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I'm all for it.  It was his guys, Nunes and Ryan, among others, who decided this was the way to go.

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Seems highly likely, especially considering that Page said it was "a leave of absence."