On Saturday, in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by several news outlets and conservative group Judicial Watch, the Justice Department took the unprecedented step of releasing the (heavily redacted) application[1] to wiretap former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. In a series of eight tweets fired off over the next two days, Trump reveled in the document, declaring it evidence of “an illegal scam,” and further proof of the “witch hunt” against him.
It is none of those things. It never has been. But the secretive nature of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act[2], and the court that authorizes warrants under it, has for months provided Trump and boosters like House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes an opportunity to confuse and outright mislead the public.
As we’ve written for well over a year[3] at this point, the fact that Carter Page was surveilled does not vindicate Trump. Saturday’s release, the first time a FISA warrant application has been made public in the court's 40-year history, only affirms that more. But Trump can still repeatedly, forcefully insist that it does, placing a safe bet that FISA is too inscrutable for most people to understand the basic issues at play. Or maybe Trump has chosen not to understand it himself.
Page Turner
Here are the facts, put plainly and succinctly, according to news reports and public documents. In June 2013, the FBI interviewed[4] Carter Page, after allegedly hearing a Russian agent discuss his potential usefulness. Nearly three years later, in March of 2016, Page joined then-candidate Trump’s foreign policy team. That September, he left the campaign. On October 22, 2016, the FBI obtained a FISA warrant to surveil Page under suspicion of acting as an agent of a