Report: Secret Memo Shows Rosenstein OK’d Carter Page Surveillance

A highly disputed memo written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reportedly reveals that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein approved continued surveillance last spring of former Trump campaign foreign-policy associate Carter Page, whom officials suspected was acting as a Russian agent. The New York Times reports that three people familiar with the document say it portrays the Russia investigation as “tainted from the start” because it refers to research collected in a dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele. Rosenstein is said to have extended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court order on Page shortly after he was appointed to his post by President Trump. Democrats with access to the document say Republicans have “cherry-picked facts”—according to the Times—to craft a misleading narrative to their own advantage. Rosenstein’s inclusion in the memo may suggest that Republicans are thinking of seizing on his role as a new means of undermining special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, the Times reports. Mueller was tapped as special counsel by Rosenstein in May 2017.