The FBI might have picked up a conversation between Carter Page and former Trump transition adviser Steve Bannon in January 2017, when investigators had the former Trump campaign foreign adviser under surveillance through a FISA warrant, according to news reports Thursday.
"If Page was using one of his standard phones, it was probably picked up," Elizabeth Goitein, a former Justice Department trial attorney and congressional counsel, told Politico.
Page told the House Intelligence Committee about the call in November.
A memo released by the committee's Republican members last week after President Donald Trump's approval disclosed the FBI had obtained the first of four consecutive 90-day warrants to monitor Page, beginning Oct. 21, 2016.
Most likely, the agency was still surveilling Page when he said he talked with Bannon, Politico reports.
The FBI obtained a warrant through the court established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows agencies to monitor U.S. citizens who might be suspected of working with a foreign power.
The memo attacks the probe into Russian meddling headed by special counsel Robert Mueller, alleging surveillance abuses regarding the Page warrants by the FBI and Justice Department.
In his November testimony, Page told the Intelligence Committee that Bannon called him Jan. 10, 2017, just before Trump's inauguration.
He had asked Page to cancel a television appearance that had been scheduled for that day, according to the report.
By then, Page had been cut from the Trump camp amid reports he was under investigation for possible ties to Moscow.
Page told lawmakers he brought up the unsubstantiated dossier by former British agent Christopher Steele that was used by the FBI and Justice to obtain the Page warrants.
The dossier had negative information on Trump, Politico reports.
Page told the committee he and Bannon also discussed the dossier, though he did not provide details.
However, Page stood by his account in an email to Politico on Thursday, adding he might have talked with other Trump campaign aides while under FBI surveillance.
"Bear in mind that my relationship with the team was essentially discontinued, for all intents and purposes" in September 2016, he said in the email.
The FBI's monitoring began the next month, according to the Republican memo.
Asked whether the FBI might have picked up other communications with Trump associates, Page told Politico, "probably not much."
Bannon has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the Mueller probe — and neither he nor his lawyer would comment on Page's story Thursday.
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