FBI monitoring of conversations of former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page may have picked up conversations Page had with senior Trump aide at the time, Steve Bannon. Page, a former foreign policy advisor to Trump campaign, has been under surveillance by the FBI it’s been revealed, for about one and a half years. If Page had any conversations with Bannon during that time, it’s likely those interactions were swept up in the surveillance as well.
Page has told Congress about one specific instance where Bannon and Page had a phone conversation. Revelations about the call itself have become public, but the knowledge that the FBI’s was surveilling Page at the time has shed new light on it.
Bannon called Page in January 2017, shortly before the President’s inauguration, to tell him to cancel a planned television appearance on the MSNBC Network, which Page did. The campaign, by that time, had severed all ties with the adviser. Page said then brought up the now-infamous Steele Dossier which had been published online just days earlier to Bannon. Page didn’t relay any specifics of that conversation.
Knowledge that Page was under FBI surveillance at the time of the conversation was laid out in a memo written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. The memo alleges that the FBI used uncorroborated information in the Steele Dossier to obtain the FISA warrants to spy on Page. The FBI denies that account, saying their interest in the Trump campaign and Page began with other sources.
Bannon hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing in the Russia investigation. He has been called in for an interview with special counsel in charge of the investigation, Robert Mueller, and has said that he will cooperate with Mueller. The interview is scheduled to take place this week.