Carter Page involved in Russian spy ring as early as 2013 Republicans broke rank

Carter Page was under surveillance by the FBI in 2013 because he had ties to a controversial Russian figure, Victor Podobny.  Page has been on a media blitz to exonerate himself since early 2017.  He tried to play the victim as a FBI target and inadvertently told MSNBC 4 months earlier in an interview this day would come 4 months later with the memo  He told MSNBC in October of 2017, that Paul Ryan would give the green light of releasing classified FISA court documents showing that Carter Page was approved for surveillance.  His purpose was trying to blame the Russian investigation on what he perceived to be a shady memo by Chris Steele.  This is not true.  The Russian probe started in the summer of 2016 due to unethical involvement by Paul Manafort with the Russians in which he was in debt $20 million to an oligarch.  George Papadapoulos was also a target ot the investigation.  FBI agent Pete Strzok opened the investigation in July 2016 based on "information" about Papadapoulos, rather than the dossier.

The New York Times has previously reported that Papadapoulos bragged to an Australian diplomat that the Russians had damaging information on Clinton before the hack of the DNC became publicly known. The Australian government tipped off the FBI to what Papadapoulos had said, according to the Times.

Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with special counsel Mueller’s investigation. He pleaded guilty on his own accord and several of Trump's "volunteer" aides do have shady Russian ties.  The timeline indicates the investigation was forthcoming aside from the Steele dossier. When Trump put out false information that Obama was tapping Trump Tower in October, 2016, it was a deflection of the truth that 3 Trump campaign volunteers had dirty Russian ties.  The FBI has full right to investigate.