Trump Campaign Aide Carter Page Denies Then Admits Meeting With Russian Bigwigs
During  a seven-hour hearing with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence  former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page  denied  then quickly admitted to encounters with top Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip to Moscow—and to suggesting that  candidate Donald Trump  travel to Russia himself.
According to the 243-page transcript of  the hearing  last week released on Monday night  Page also admitted to soliciting suggestions from the  Trump  campaign on the contents of his speech to the New Economic School in Moscow and to informing now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and senior campaign adviser Sam Clovis of his trip in advance.
Under questioning  Page denied three times that he had ever had a private meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. But moments later  when Schiff pointed to a memo in which Page described “a private conversation” with Dvorkovich in which the official “expressed strong support for Mr. Trump ” Page’s recollection changed.
Gowdy—who noted that Page’s descriptions of his service to the Trump campaign as “volunteer  unpaid  informal  unofficial ” left him “still trying to figure out what the hell your role was”— also attempted to crack Page’s particular lexicon  attempting and failing to delineate the definition of a “meeting” versus a “greeting.”
Page characterized most of the meetings as greetings  although he later stated that being in a meeting with someone—in one case  President Trump himself—was not the same thing as meeting someone.
“I have never met him in my life ” Page said of Trump. “I’ve been in a lot of meetings with him  and I’ve learned a lot from him  but never actually met him face-to-face.”
During  a seven-hour hearing with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence  [TGT]denied  then quickly admitted to encounters with top Russian government officials during a July 2016 trip to Moscow—and to suggesting that  candidate Donald Trump  travel to Russia himself.
According to the 243-page transcript of  the hearing  last week released on Monday night  [TGT] also admitted to soliciting suggestions from [TGT]campaign on the contents of his speech to the New Economic School in Moscow and to informing now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and senior campaign adviser Sam Clovis of his trip in advance.
Under questioning  [TGT] denied three times that he had ever had a private meeting with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. But moments later  when Schiff pointed to a memo in which [TGT] described “a private conversation” with Dvorkovich in which the official “expressed strong support for [TGT] ” Page’s recollection changed.
Gowdy—who noted that Page’s descriptions of his service to the [TGT] campaign as “volunteer  unpaid  informal  unofficial ” left him “still trying to figure out what the hell your role was”— also attempted to crack Page’s particular lexicon  attempting and failing to delineate the definition of a “meeting” versus a “greeting.”
Page characterized most of the meetings as greetings  although he later stated that being in a meeting with someone—in one case  [TGT] himself—was not the same thing as meeting someone.
“I have never met [TGT] in my life ” [TGT] said of [TGT]. “I’ve been in a lot of meetings with [TGT]  and I’ve learned a lot from [TGT]  but never actually met [TGT] face-to-face.”