On Aug. 17, 2016, two months before the approval of the first FISA application, the Other Government Agency (OGA) gave some members of the Crossfire Hurricane team a memo indicating that Page was an approved operational contact for the U.S. from 2008 to 2013.
The OGA, in this case, has been acknowledged publicly to be the CIA.
The memo outlined Page’s service to the CIA and described how he had met certain Russian intelligence officers at their request. It also provided other details of his work for them.
The information provided by the CIA was not included in any of the FISA applications.
Between October 2016 and September 2017 there were four Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA) applications targeting Carter Page.
Each of these FISA applications alleged there was “probable cause” that Carter Page was a “knowing agent of a foreign power, specifically Russia.” This was based on the fact that Carter had contact with “certain Russian intelligence agents.”
Information is leaked by Christopher Steele and the FBI
On Sept. 23, 2016, an article appeared on Yahoo News with the headline “U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin.” The first FISA application of Page was approved on Oct. 21, 2016.
