Nice Try on Carter Page, Guys

[deminks]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/nice-try-on-carter-page-guys

There's something a bit funny going on today. The White House is simultaneously claiming that news of the Carter Page FISA warrant vindicates their claims about Obama administration surveillance while also insisting Page had virtually nothing to do with the campaign. This is a complicated story because the Trump campaign - especially at that stage - was so chaotic and disorganized that the line between central and peripheral could be hard to detect and change from one day to the next. But the White House can't get away with saying that Page was an "informal" advisor one with "no official title."

This is another moment when it is important to recur to the timeline. Well into 2016, Trump had no official or unofficial foreign policy advisors. Indeed, he got in trouble for saying that he got his foreign policy knowledge from watching generals talk on cable. When he had to come up with a group of official, named advisors, he did so in concert with now Attorney General Jeff Sessions and he came up with a list of five people. He announced the five at an on the record and high profile meeting with The Washington Post editorial board. There were five of them: Walid Phares, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Joe Schmitz, and ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.

Page's official stated advisory purview? Europe and Russia.

It was quite formal and quite official. Now, the White House's current line is basically: Come on, the whole campaign was a mess. We barely even knew who he was. In part, this is true. It was a motley bunch, as I've discussed here. Some of these guys went on to big things with Trump. Walid Phares has continued to be a close administration advisor on trashing Muslims and Gen Kellogg was Trump's interim National Security Advisor. He's still at the NSC. Page was official as it got. The fact the campaign was so chaotic and the now-administration either won't say or doesn't remember how certain people got on the list is another issue entirely.

(end snip)

Bigly.

There is also the little matter of his trip to Moscow last year that apparently was approved by "the campaign".

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/carter-page-russia-trip-trump-corey-lewandowski-235784

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/09/the-mystery-of-trumps-man-in-moscow-214283

[Lucinda]

1. KNR Thank you!

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Yup,and in a few hours

Trump will lay blame on Comey and Clinton.

[rickford66]

3. So this was a "good" leak ?

[MedusaX]

4. I do believe that it would make more sense

If we replace the word "Advisor" with something more along the lines of "Jr. Acct Exec"

45's first & only real foreign policy speech was shaped by a registered lobbyist for a Russian pipeline project & advisor to Alfa Bank/LetterOne.

This guy (Richard Burt) was the policy (Foreign & National Security) expert who advised Jeffy Sessions & wrote white papers for him & gave speeches at the various summer dinners held by the campaign team...

He was not paid by the campaign... but it appears that his involvement 'set' the policy ...

None of the various "formally named Advisors" seem to have had any substantial policy input...
so what was their purpose?

Quite likely that these "advisors" were really just tasked with lining up "deals" that would be associated with the "implementation" of the foreign & national security policies and would be profitable to specific foreign & domestic parties.

Clearly, some deals would be publicly promoted to prove 45's prowess.... and to simultaneously distract from the private deals that were being made.


So, policy experts & advisors would be expected to have knowledge of and interact with others who have expertise in specific areas (russia, for example)... interactions that the WH spin doctors love to describe as taking place in the course of normal business.

That is a pretty good cover story for a group of people who are in reality brokering/negotiating various large scale transactions and cooperation agreements between foreign & domestic players.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$