Carter Page, who served briefly as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, made an appearance in a federal espionage case because he communicated several years ago with a Russian intelligence agent under surveillance by the FBI. In a statement released Tuesday, Page confirmed his role in the 2015 Justice Department spy case, adding another twist to the still-unfolding story of Trump’s peculiar and expanding ties to people connected to Russia. Page said he assisted U.S. prosecutors in their case against Evgeny Buryakov, an undercover Kremlin agent then posing as a bank executive in New York. Buryakov was convicted of espionage and released from federal prison last week, a few months short of completing a 30-month sentence. Buryakov agreed to be immediately deported to Russia.
Page’s involvement was first disclosed Monday by BuzzFeed, which said Page was identified as “Male 1” in the Justice Department’s complaint against a Russian spy network based in New York.
In a written exchange with The Washington Post, Page confirmed playing a role in the case but declined to discuss details. “Given the very light masking in the original document from January 2015, you can draw your own conclusions,” Page wrote.
According to the court records, the FBI interviewed Page as part of the case against three Russian men identified as agents of the Russian overseas intelligence agency, the SVR. One of them, Buryakov, was operating undercover as an executive in the New York office of a Russian development bank, Vnesheconombank.
Full Article: Former Trump adviser admits to 2013 communication with Russian spy – The Washington Post.