Carter Page: GOP memo ‘worse than I could’ve possibly imagined’

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page said the GOP memo alleging surveillance abuses at the Department of Justice was worse than he could have imagined.

During an interview late Monday on Fox News, Page was asked about his reaction to the recently released memo.

“My first reaction, Laura, when I saw it was, you know, there was a lot of details that kept dripping out,” he said.

“And it sounded really bad. When I actually saw it, it was even worse than I could’ve possibly imagined.”

{mosads}The four-page memo, released last Friday, accuses senior Justice Department officials of improperly using information from the so-called Steele dossier — which originated as an opposition research document during the 2016 presidential race — to obtain surveillance warrants on Page, a former Trump campaign adviser. 

Trump tweeted this past weekend that the memo “totally vindicates” him in the investigation into Russian election interference and possible collusion between his campaign and Moscow.

Democrats have called the memo misleading and said it includes cherry-picked claims to undermine the ongoing Russia probe.

On Monday, the House Intelligence Committee voted unanimously to release a document drafted by Democrats to rebut the GOP memo.

The 10-page classified document now goes to President Trump, who has five days to block its release if he so chooses. 

The Democratic memo is expected to lay out a point-by-point rebuttal of the assertions in the GOP memo and make the case that the FBI had good reason to spy on Page as part of the counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign.

During the interview on Fox News, Page also commented on what happened in the days after the GOP memo was released.

“What was particularly interesting is sort of the next 48 hours after that where part of the attack on Chairman Nunes and the committee was to come up with any new information to discredit me and anything related to the investigation or the overall investigation and all the great work that HPSCI has been doing,” he said, referring to the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

“So, it’s pretty stark contrast between getting the facts out there, having — you know, still getting attacked.  So, it’s pretty crazy.”

Correction: Carter Page worked as a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign. An earlier version of this story included incorrect information.