A key figure in the now-discredited investigation into Russia’s meddling President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Carter Page says he wants Congress to pay him reparations.
Page, who served briefly as a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, says his reputation and the reputations of others have suffered after being targeted by surveillance operations, investigations, and media attacks.
They’ve been cleared, and they should be paid, he says.
“I think the time has now come for Congress to pass legislation which provides some reparations for the countless Americans whose lives were upended by these criminal activities,” Page told The Daily Caller.
Page said he would want the reparations to be modeled on those given to Japanese-Americans forced into internment camps during WWII.
The Civil Liberties Act, signed into law in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan, granted $20,000 to each surviving victim – although NPR notes it took a decade of lobbying by the Japanese-American community to get it through Congress.
Such an act for Trump allies would no doubt be close to impossible to pass today. Still, Page is urging conservative lawmakers to at least consider it.
He noted that it would also send a message to a federal government that has abused its power of surveillance in the past.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – for political reasons, as well – was spied upon in the 1960s,” Page told The Daily Caller. “This is very similar in many ways but takes it so many steps forward.”
He told Newsmax that the reparations aren’t just about his own struggles – it’s for everyone else caught up in “deep state” surveillance operations.
“I’m concerned about so many lives that were destroyed through this complete hoax. It really wasn’t just me,” Page said. “It was all the way up to President Trump, going back to his candidacy.”
Page has also written a book, “Abuse and Power: How an Innocent American Was Framed in an Attempted Coup Against the President.”
He told Fox News the book will feature “never-before-revealed” details about his role in the campaign and the abusive use of FISA warrants that placed him under surveillance – and, ultimately, turned him into a key figure in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
He was never accused of, or charged with any crime.
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz later found “significant inaccuracies and omissions” in the application sent to the FISA court to win permission to put Page under surveillance.
“Although my name was cleared by the Horowitz report, I don’t know if I will ever get my reputation back,” Page told Fox News. “The multiple parties involved in the Russia collusion hoax – including the DNC, the mainstream media, FBI and Justice Department – must be held accountable.”
He told The Daily Caller that the use of high-tech surveillance against himself and other members of the administration was “unprecedented” and shows the “power of the surveillance state.”
However, he also warned that the system is still in place – and working fervently against the president behind the scenes.
“I think Attorney General [William] Barr is a great patriot, and you know he wants to do the right thing,” Page told Newsmax. “But he is surrounded. He has a similar situation at the Department of Justice that President Trump has at the White House.”
He said both Barr and Trump are “surrounded by hundreds or thousands of Deep Staters who are trying to undermine their agenda, trying to undermine them doing the right thing.”
As a result, he’s not just calling for reparations for himself and others who worked on Trump’s campaign. As he told the Washington Examiner, he wants “systematic” reform of the FISA system – with reparations being one step in that process.
The book is set to be published in August – which is the hottest part of summer, in more ways than one: It’s right when the presidential campaign will be reaching its boiling point.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”