Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters
Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser at the center of a Republican memo alleging FBI wrongdoing in the Russia investigation, bragged about his role as an adviser to the Kremlin in a 2013 letter, Time magazine reports. President Trump and his Republican allies have claimed an FBI wiretap of Page during the 2016 presidential election was wrongfully obtained, representing an abuse of power and showing bias within the agency. But an April 2013 letter sent by Page to an academic journal reveals that he boasted of having high-level contacts in the Russian government long before he served on Trump’s campaign, according to Time. In that letter, Page reportedly wrote: “Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda.” Page was also interviewed by the FBI in 2013 over his contacts with Russians believed to be intelligence operatives trying to recruit him with promises of business deals in Russia. One of the Russian operatives later labeled Page an “idiot” for falling for his “empty promises” so easily, court documents show.