Donald Trump campaign signed off on adviser Carter Page’s trip to Moscow during campaign

| 3:27 pm EST March 7, 2017
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Even as former Donald Trump campaign adviser Carter Page comes further into focus as a key player in the Trump-Russia scandal, the campaign itself has increasingly tried to paint Page as a bit player who is overstating his role. The campaign is even now claiming that it’s been threatening legal action against Page. But now it turns out the Trump campaign approved Carter Page’s trip to Moscow during the election.

This development lends crucial credibility to Carter Page, who initially denied having met with any Russian government representatives during the campaign, but who has since admitted that he met with the Russian Ambassador (along with Jeff Sessions and J.D. Gordon) during the Republican National Convention. Page and Gordon are now asserting that it was Donald Trump himself who spearheaded the Republican Party platform change from a pro-Ukraine stance to a pro-Russia stance at the convention.

But even as Carter Page has begun pointing the finger at Donald Trump over Russia, and has agreed to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Trump campaign has begun trying to discredit him. On Friday, the campaign insisted that Page has been misrepresenting his role all along, and claimed that it’s been privately cease and desisting him for months.

And yet we now have confirmation that when Carter Page traveled to Moscow to give a pro-Russia speech in August of 2016, the Donald Trump campaign did sign off on it in advance, thanks to this new report from Politico. Gordon advised him not to go, but Corey Lewandowski – who was running the campaign at the time – approved the trip on the condition that he not officially do so as an adviser. And as we’ve previously reported, despite the campaign’s denials, it was Sessions who first introduced Page to Donald Trump.

These developments make the enigmatic Carter Page look incrementally more credible, and the Trump campaign look like it’s merely trying to scapegoat him, as he prepares to testify about the Trump-Russia scandal before the Senate Intel Committee. And crucially, J.D. Gordon is backing up Page’s assertion that Trump himself was behind the platform change. Contribute to Palmer Report