Carter Page

Carter Page
Personal details
Born Carter William Page
(1971-06-03) June 3, 1971
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Political party Republican
Education United States Naval Academy (BS)
Georgetown University (MA)
New York University (MBA)
University of London (PhD)
Occupation Investment banker
Foreign policy analyst
Military service
Allegiance  United States
Service/branch  United States Navy
Years of service 1993–98 (Navy)
1998–2004 (Navy Reserve)
Rank Lieutenant

Carter William Page (born June 3, 1971) is an American petroleum industry consultant and a former foreign-policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 Presidential election campaign.[1] Page is the founder and managing partner of Global Energy Capital, a one-man investment fund and consulting firm specializing in the Russian and Central Asian oil and gas business.[2][3][4] He has been a focus of the 2017 Special Counsel investigation into links between Trump associates and Russian officials and Russian interference on behalf of Trump during the 2016 Presidential election.[2]

Life and career

Carter Page was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 3, 1971,[5] the son of Allan Robert Page and Rachel (Greenstein) Page.[6][7] His father was from Galway, New York, and his mother was from Minneapolis.[8] His father was a manager and executive with the Central Hudson Gas & Electric Company.[9] Page was raised in Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated from Poughkeepsie's Our Lady of Lourdes High School in 1989.[6]

Page graduated with a BS degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1993; he graduated with distinction (top 10% of his class) and was chosen for the Navy's Trident Scholar program, which gives selected officers the opportunity for independent academic research and study.[10][11][12] During his senior year at the Naval Academy, he worked in the office of Les Aspin as a researcher for the House Armed Services Committee.[13] He served in the U.S. Navy for five years, including a tour in western Morocco as an intelligence officer for a United Nations peacekeeping mission, and attained the rank of lieutenant.[13][14] In 1994, he completed a MA degree in National Security Studies at Georgetown University.[13] After leaving active duty in 1998, Page was a member of the Navy's inactive reserve until 2004.[14]

Education and business

After leaving the Navy, Page completed a fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations, and in 2001 he received a MBA degree from New York University.[10][15] In 2000, he began work as an investment banker with Merrill Lynch in the firm's London office, was a vice president in the company's Moscow office,[3] and later served as COO for Merrill Lynch's energy and power department in New York.[11] Page has stated that he worked on transactions involving Gazprom and other leading Russian energy companies. According to business people interviewed by Politico in 2016, Page's work in Moscow was at a subordinate level, and he himself remained largely unknown to decision-makers.[3]

After leaving Merrill Lynch in 2008, Page founded his own investment fund, Global Energy Capital with partner James Richard and a former mid-level Gazprom executive, Sergei Yatsenko.[3][16] The fund operates out of a Manhattan co-working space shared with a booking agency for wedding bands, and as of late 2017, Page was the firm's sole employee.[2] Other businesspeople working in the Russian energy sector said in 2016 that the fund had yet to actually realize a project.[2][3]

Page received a PhD degree from SOAS, University of London in 2012, where he was supervised by Shirin Akiner.[2][10] His doctoral dissertation on the transition of Asian countries from communism to capitalism was rejected twice before ultimately being accepted by new examiners.[17] One of his original examiners later said Page "knew next to nothing" about the subject matter and was unfamiliar with "basic concepts" such as Marxism and state capitalism.[18] He sought unsuccessfully to publish his dissertation as a book; a reviewer described it as "very analytically confused, just throwing a lot of stuff out there without any real kind of argument."[2] Page blamed the rejection on anti-Russian and anti-American bias.[18] He later ran an international affairs program at Bard College and taught a course on energy and politics at New York University.[19][20] In more recent years, he has written columns in Global Policy Journal, a publication of Durham University.[3]

Foreign policy and ties to Russia

In 1998, Page joined the Eurasia Group, a strategy consulting firm, but left three months later. In 2017, Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer recalled on his Twitter feed that Page's strong pro-Russian stance was "not a good fit" for the firm and that Page was its "most wackadoodle" alumnus.[21] Stephen Sestanovich later described Page's foreign-policy views as having "an edgy Putinist resentment" and a sympathy to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's criticisms of the United States.[2] Over time, Page became increasingly critical of United States foreign policy toward Russia, and more supportive of Putin, with a United States official describing Page as "a brazen apologist for anything Moscow did".[4] Page is frequently quoted by Russian state television, where he is presented as a "famous American economist".[3]

In August 2013, Page wrote, "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."[22] Page described his role differently in 2018: "I sat in on some meetings, but to call me an advisor is way over the top."[23] Also in 2013, Russian intelligence operatives attempted to recruit Page, and one of them, Victor Podobnyy, described Page as enthusiastic about business opportunities in Russia but an "idiot".[2][20] "I also promised him a lot," Podobnyy reported to a fellow Russian intelligence officer at the time, according to an FBI transcript of their conversation, which was covertly recorded. "How else to work with foreigners?"[24][25][20] News accounts in 2017 indicated that because of these ties to Russia, Page had been the subject of a warrant pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 2014, at least two years earlier than was indicated in the stories concerning his role in the 2016 Presidential campaign of Donald Trump.[26][27]

Trump 2016 presidential campaign

Trump announced Page as a foreign policy adviser in his campaign on March 21, 2016.[28] In September 2016, U.S. intelligence officials investigated alleged contacts between Page and Russian officials subject to U.S. sanctions, including Igor Sechin, the president of state-run Russian oil conglomerate Rosneft.[4] After news reports began to appear describing Page's links to Russia and Putin's government, Page stepped down from his role in the Trump campaign.[1][29] Upon his departure, Trump campaign communications director Jason Miller said of Page, "He’s never been a part of our campaign. Period."[30]

Shortly after Page resigned from the Trump campaign, the Federal Bureau of Investigation obtained another warrant (he was subject to one beginning in 2014) from the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in October 2016 to surveil Page's communications.[31] To issue the warrant, a federal judge concluded there was probable cause to believe that Page was a foreign agent knowingly engaging in clandestine intelligence for the Russian government.[32] The initial 90-day warrant was subsequently renewed more than once.[33] The New York Times reported on May 18, 2018 that the surveillance warrant expired around October 2017.[34]

In January 2017, Page's name appeared repeatedly in the "Trump–Russia / Steele dossier" containing allegations of close interactions between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.[35][36][37][38] By the end of January 2017, Page was under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Director of National Intelligence, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.[39] Page was not accused of any wrongdoing.[40]

The Trump Administration attempted to distance itself from Page, saying that he had never met Trump or advised him about anything,[2] but a December 2016 Page press conference in Russia contradicts the claim that Page and Trump never met.[41] Page responded to a question about his contact with Trump saying, "I've certainly been in a number of meetings with him and I've learned a tremendous amount from him."[42]

In October 2017, Page said he would not cooperate with requests to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee and would assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.[43] He said this was because they were requesting documents dating back to 2010, and he did not want to be caught in a "perjury trap". He expressed the wish to testify before the committee in an open setting.[44]

On July 21, 2018, the Justice Department released a heavily redacted version of the October 2016 FISA warrant application for Page, which expressed in part the FBI's belief that the Russian government was collaborating with Page and possibly others associated with the Trump campaign,[45] as well as that Page had been the subject of targeted recruitment by Russian intelligence agencies.[46] The application also said that Page and a Russian intelligence operative had met in secret to discuss compromising material (kompromat) the Russian government held against "Candidate #2" (presumed to be Hillary Clinton) and the possibility of the Russians giving it to the Trump campaign.[47]

House Intelligence Committee testimony

On November 2, 2017, Page testified[48] to the House Intelligence Committee that he had he kept senior officials in the Trump campaign such as Corey Lewandowski, Hope Hicks, and J.D. Gordon informed about his contacts with the Russians[49] and had informed Jeff Sessions, Lewandowski, Hicks and other Trump campaign officials that he was traveling to Russia to give a speech in July 2016.[50][51][52]

Page testified that he had met with Russian government officials during this trip and had sent a post-meeting report via email to members of the Trump campaign.[53] He also indicated that campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis had asked him to sign a non-disclosure agreement about his trip.[54] Elements of Page's testimony contradicted prior claims by Trump, Sessions, and others in the Trump administration.[50][53][55][56] Lewandowski, who had previously denied knowing Page or meeting him during the campaign, said after Page's testimony that his memory was refreshed and acknowledged that he had been aware of Page's trip to Russia.[57]

Page also testified that after delivering a commencement speech at the New Economic School in Moscow, he spoke briefly with one of the people in attendance, Arkady Dvorkovich, a Deputy Prime Minister in Dmitry Medvedev's cabinet, contradicting his previous statements not to have spoken to anyone connected with the Russian government.[58] In addition, while Page denied a meeting with Sechin as alleged in the Trump–Russia dossier, he did say he met with Andrey Baranov, Rosneft's head of investor relations.[59] The dossier alleges that Sechin offered Page the brokerage fee from the sale of up to 19 percent of Rosneft if he worked to roll back Magnitsky Act economic sanctions that had been imposed on Russia in 2012.[59][60][61] It also alleges that Page confirmed, on Trump's "full authority", that this was Trump's intent.[62][63][64][59][65][66] Page testified that he did not "directly" express support for lifting the sanctions during the meeting with Baranov, but that he might have mentioned the proposed Rosneft transaction.[59]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rogin, Josh (September 26, 2016). "Trump's Russia adviser speaks out, calls accusations 'complete garbage'". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Zengerle, Jason (December 18, 2017). "What (if Anything) Does Carter Page Know?". New York Times.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ioffe, Julia (September 23, 2016). "Who Is Carter Page?". Politico. Archived from the original on September 24, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  4. 1 2 3 Isikoff, Michael (September 23, 2016). "U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin". Yahoo! News. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Carter William Page in the Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002". Ancestry.com. June 3, 1971. (Subscription required (help)).
  6. 1 2 Howland, Jack (March 3, 2017). "Page, Poughkeepsie Native, Linked to Trump-Russia". Poughkeepsie Journal. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
  7. ↑ "Minnesota, Marriage Index, 1958–2001". Ancestry.com. June 20, 1970. (Subscription required (help)).
  8. ↑ "Hennepin County Marriage License Applications, Allan R. Page and Rachel Greenstein". Minneapolis Star Tribune. Minneapolis, MN. March 28, 1970. p. 18. (Subscription required (help)).
  9. ↑ "2 Workers Promoted at Central Hudson". Poughkeepsie Journal. Poughkeepsie, N.Y. August 2, 1984. p. 22. (Subscription required (help)).
  10. 1 2 3 Gidda, Mirren (April 12, 2017). "Who is Carter Page and Why is the FBI Surveilling Him?". Newsweek. New York.
  11. 1 2 Mufson, Steven; Tom Hamburger (July 8, 2016). "Trump Adviser's Public Comments, Ties to Moscow Stir Unease in Both Parties". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  12. ↑ Page, Carter W. (May 17, 1993). ""Balancing Congressional Needs for Classified Information: A Case Study of the Strategic Defense Initiative"" (PDF). Ft. Belvoir, Va.: Defense Technical Information Center.
  13. 1 2 3 Hall, Kevin G. (April 14, 2017). "Why did FBI suspect Trump campaign adviser was a foreign agent?". Washington, D.C.: McClatchy DC Bureau.
  14. 1 2 Dilanian, Ken; Memoli, Mike (February 5, 2018). "Who is Carter Page and what does he have to do with the Russia probe?". NBC News. New York, NY.
  15. ↑ Lucas, Ryan (November 7, 2017). "Carter Page Tells House Intel Panel He Spoke To Sessions About Russia Contacts". NPR.org. Washington, D.C. p. Transcript, page 41.
  16. ↑ "Capital Markets: Company Overview of Global Energy Capital LLC". New York: Bloomberg News. 2017.
  17. ↑ Sabur, Rozina (December 22, 2017). "Carter Page, Donald Trump's former adviser, blamed British academics after two failed PhD attempts". The Telegraph. London, UK.
  18. 1 2 Harding, Luke (December 22, 2017). "Ex-Trump adviser Carter Page accused academics who twice failed his PhD of bias". The Guardian. London.
  19. ↑ Scott, Shane (April 19, 2017). "Trump Adviser's Visit to Moscow Got the F.B.I.'s Attention". The New York Times. New York, NY.
  20. 1 2 3 Goldman, Adam (April 4, 2017). "Russian Spies Tried to Recruit Carter Page Before He Advised Trump". New York Times.
  21. ↑ Stephanie Kirchgaessner; Spencer Ackerman; Julian Borger; Luke Harding (April 14, 2017). "Former Trump adviser Carter Page held 'strong pro-Kremlin views', says ex-boss". The Guardian. Retrieved 2017-04-14.
  22. ↑ "Carter Page Touted Kremlin Contacts in 2013 Letter". Time. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  23. ↑ Tatum, Sophie. "Carter Page says FISA warrant accusations 'so ridiculous' and 'misleading'". CNN. Retrieved 2018-07-23.
  24. ↑ Watkins, Ali (April 3, 2017). "A Former Trump Adviser Met With A Russian Spy". Buzzfeed News. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  25. ↑ Monaghan, Gregory (January 23, 2015). "Sealed complaint, United States v. Evgeny Buryakov, Igor Sporyshev, and Victor Podobnyy" (PDF). US Department of Justice. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  26. ↑ Phillips, Ariella (August 3, 2017). "Former Trump adviser Carter Page under FISA warrant since 2014: Report". The Washington Examiner. Washington, D.C.
  27. ↑ Perez, Evan; Brown, Pamela; Prokupecz, Shimon (August 4, 2017). "One year into the FBI's Russia investigation, Mueller is on the Trump money trail". CNN.com. Atlanta, GA.
  28. ↑ "Opinion - A transcript of Donald Trump's meeting with The Washington Post editorial board". Washington Post. Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  29. ↑ Shane, Scott; Mazzetti, Mark; Goldman, Adam (April 19, 2017). "Trump Adviser's Visit to Moscow Got the F.B.I.'s Attention". The New York Times.
  30. ↑ Neidig, Harper (September 24, 2016). "Trump camp backs away from adviser suspected of Kremlin ties". Retrieved July 24, 2018.
  31. ↑ Rosenberg, Matthew; Apuzzo, Matt (13 April 2017). "Court Approved Wiretap on Trump Campaign Aide Over Russia Ties". The New York Times. p. A13. Retrieved 13 April 2017.
  32. ↑ Beckwith, Ryan Teague; Abramson, Alana (February 1, 2018). "Who Is Carter Page? Meet the Donald Trump Advisor at the Center of the GOP Memo". Time. New York, NY: Meredith Corporation. Retrieved 2018-02-08.
  33. ↑ Nakashima, Ellen; Barrett, Devlin; Entous, Adam (April 12, 2017). "FBI obtained FISA warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page". The Washington Post. p. A1.
  34. ↑ "F.B.I. Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, as Trump Claims". May 18, 2018. Retrieved May 20, 2018 – via NYTimes.com.
  35. ↑ Sengupta, Kim (2 March 2017). "US Senate calls on British spy Christopher Steele to give evidence on explosive Trump-Russia dossier". Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  36. ↑ Bensinger, Ken; Miriam Elder; Mark Schoofs (January 10, 2017). "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia". New York: BuzzFeed News. Retrieved January 12, 2017. See also the attached full transcript of the dossier.
  37. ↑ First major new report, from Bernstein, et al., at CNN: Evan Perez; Jim Sciutto; Jake Tapper; Carl Bernstein (January 10, 2017). "Intel Chiefs Presented Trump with Claims of Russian Efforts to Compromise Him". CNN. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  38. ↑ Editorial regarding the journalist issues raise by the published leak and subsequent story: Wemple, Erik (January 10, 2017). "BuzzFeed's Ridiculous Rationale For Publishing the Trump-Russia Dossier". The Washington Post News. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  39. ↑ Schmidt, Michael S.; Rosenberg, Matthew; Goldman, Adam; Apuzzo, Matt (2017-01-19). "Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-01-20.
  40. ↑ Ballhaus, Rebecca; Tau, Byron (February 2, 2018). "Former Trump Aide Carter Page Was on U.S. Counterintelligence Radar Before Russia Dossier". Wall Street Journal. Court documents, testimony show foreign-policy adviser was known to authorities as early as 2013… Mr. Page hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.
  41. ↑ O'Meara Morales, Kelly (February 6, 2018). "Carter Page told George Stephanopoulos he never met Donald Trump. Here's a video of him telling Russian media they had 'a number of meetings.'". The Week. New York, NY. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  42. ↑ Savaransky, Rebecca (February 6, 2018). "Carter Page told Russian TV he was in 'a number of meetings' with Trump". The Hill. Washington, DC. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
  43. ↑ "Carter Page says he won't testify before Senate Intelligence panel in Russia probe". Politico. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
  44. ↑ "Carter Page subpoenaed by Senate intel committee". CNN. Retrieved 2017-11-01.
  45. ↑ "Justice Dept. Releases Secret Carter Page Surveillance Documents at Center of Partisan Clash". Retrieved July 21, 2018.
  46. ↑ Cheslow, Daniella (July 22, 2018). "Trump Administration Releases Classified Warrants For FBI Wiretap Of Carter Page". NPR. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  47. ↑ Dupree, Jamie (July 21, 2018). "FBI releases declassified Carter Page FISA applications". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  48. ↑ "Testimony of Carter Page, U.S. House Select Committee on Intelligence, Nov. 7, 2017" (PDF). Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  49. ↑ CNN, Manu Raju, Jeremy Herb and Katelyn Polantz,. "Carter Page reveals new contacts with Trump campaign, Russians". Retrieved May 20, 2018.
  50. 1 2 Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy (November 2, 2017). "Carter Page testifies he told Sessions about Russia trip". CNN.com. Atlanta, GA.
  51. ↑ Price, Greg (November 7, 2017). "Carter Page Says Russia Trip was Approved by Trump Campaign Manager Lewandowski". Newsweek. New York, NY.
  52. ↑ Correll, Diana Stancy (November 6, 2017). "Corey Lewandowski and Hope Hicks knew about Carter Page's trip to Russia". The Washington Examiner. Washington, D.C.
  53. 1 2 Mazzetti, Mark; Goldman, Adam (November 3, 2017). "Trump Campaign Adviser Met With Russian Officials in 2016". New York Times. New York, NY.
  54. ↑ Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy; Polantz, Katelyn (November 8, 2017). "Carter Page reveals new contacts with Trump campaign, Russians". CNN.com. Atlanta, GA.
  55. ↑ "Ex-Trump adviser Carter Page contradicts Sessions in testimony about Russia trip". Fox News. New York, NY. November 3, 2017.
  56. ↑ Tacopino, Joe (November 2, 2017). "Carter Page: I told Jeff Sessions about my trip to Russia". New York Post. New York, NY.
  57. ↑ Lima, Cristiano (November 8, 2017). "Lewandowski: 'My memory has been refreshed' on Carter Page Moscow trip". Politico. Washington, D.C.
  58. ↑ Chia, Jessica (November 3, 2017). "Carter Page flew to Moscow, met with Russian government officials during presidential campaign: report". New York Daily News. New York, NY. He has previously denied meeting with any Russian government officials during the trip. Just yesterday, Page said he traveled to Moscow to deliver a speech and that the trip was “completely unrelated to my limited volunteer role with the campaign.”
  59. 1 2 3 4 Tracy, Abigail (November 7, 2017). "Is Carter Page Digging the Trump Administration's Grave?". Vanity Fair. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
  60. ↑ Shepherd, Todd. "Carter Page: Committees have 'completely blocked' me from testifying". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  61. ↑ Bertrand, Natasha. "Memos: CEO of Russia's state oil company offered Trump adviser, allies a cut of huge deal if sanctions were lifted". Business Insider. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  62. ↑ Bertrand, Natasha (February 11, 2017). "The timeline of Trump's ties with Russia lines up with allegations of conspiracy and misconduct". Business Insider. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  63. ↑ Withnall, Adam; Sengupta, Kim (January 12, 2017). "The 10 key Donald Trump allegations from the classified Russia memos". The Independent. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  64. ↑ Bertrand, Natasha (January 27, 2017). "Memos: CEO of Russia's state oil company offered Trump adviser, allies a cut of huge deal if sanctions were lifted". Business Insider. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  65. ↑ Roazen, Ben (February 21, 2017). "What Else Does the Donald Trump–Russia Dossier Tell Us?". GQ. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  66. ↑ Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy; Polantz, Katelyn (November 7, 2017). "Carter Page reveals new contacts with Trump campaign, Russians". CNN. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
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