At Dems’ Behest, US Investigates Trump Aide for ‘Kremlin Ties’

Officials: Page Criticized US Policy During Moscow Business Trips

After a solid month of requests by Democratic Party members of Congress, officials are now confirming that the Obama Administration has launched an active investigation into one of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s foreign policy advisers, former Merrill Lynch banker Carter Page, over potential ties to Russian government officials.

As with a lot of the red-baiting allegations that have come out of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, this appears based on relatively little evidence, centering on Page having worked as an investment banker in Moscow and having forged business ties within Russia’s lucrative oil and gas industry.

Congressional officials are claiming Page was also suspected to have met with “sanctioned individuals” while in Moscow, which they claimed underscored “significant and disturbing ties” between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. They also claimed he had made comments “critical” of Obama Administration policy whilst in Russia.

Sen. Harry Reid (D – NV) had urged the FBI to look closely at Carter Page for having made a business trip to Moscow back in July, and also longtime Trump friend Roger Stone for purported ties with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The Clinton campaign has built a narrative of Trump being a “Kremlin puppet” as a centerpiece of their campaign since the Democratic Convention, during which they distracted attention from leaked DNC emails by claiming they had been leaked by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an effort to get Trump elected. Since then, claims about Trump’s campaign having ties to Putin have been reiterated constantly, though there appears to be little actual evidence that anything is happening, and Democratic officials recently issued a public statement demanding Putin “stop interfering” in the vote.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.