The Department of Justice suspected Carter Page was acting as a Russian agent when Rod Rosenstein signed off on extending surveillance of the former presidential campaign aide, The New York Times reported.
The deputy attorney general's decision to approve the application is at the heart of a still confidential Republican memo that's in the throes of a tug-of-war between those who want it released and those fighting to keep it confidential, the Times reports.
That is, the House Intelligence Committee and President Donald Trump on one side to declassify vs. Trump's Justice Department on the other.
From Rosenstein's approval, the warrant went to a surveillance court judge for a final OK, a decision that's unknown, the Times reports.
At the heart of the dispute is how the Justice Department showed probable cause of Page, a former foreign policy adviser to then candidate Trump's presidential campaign, in the first place.
Page took a trip to Russia in July 2016, prompting surveillance later that fall. Investigators then asked the DOJ for approval to extend the surveillance six months later.
However, House intel Republicans claim in their memo that the DOJ relied on the unverified and disputed Trump dossier authored by former British spy Christopher Steele as the grounds for their Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) request to surveil Page, the Times reports.
Page left Trump's campaign in the fall of 2016 over his contacts with Russians and is a focus of the special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the election.
Page would later testify before the House intel panel that he had informed Trump campaign officials — including Jeff Sessions — of his trip to Russia.
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