Secrets, spies and useful idiots: part two of Four Corners' special investigative series.
"I'm just a sacrificial lamb for people who are looking for a false story to tear down the Trump campaign." Carter Page, former Trump adviser under investigation
On Monday, Four Corners reveals the story of two key players central to the allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
"Unfortunately, Carter Page fell right into the trap, he walked right into the lion's den, dragging the rest of us with him." Former Trump campaign national security director
Carter Page and George Papadopoulos both served as foreign policy advisers to Donald Trump during the Presidential campaign. Both have come under investigation by the FBI and the special prosecutor examining Russia's interference in the election.
Both were targets of Russian spies.
"Typically, when Russian intelligence is in contact with someone, they don't waste their time. They have a reason for doing it." Former CIA Moscow station chief
In part two of Four Corners' special investigative series, reporter Sarah Ferguson pieces together the events that have engulfed these men and the Trump camp.
"Honestly, not sure I can sort him out in my own mind whether he was doing something nefarious or was just naive. I don't know. But I do know that he was a matter of concern to the FBI." Former US Director of National Intelligence
In a sometimes tense encounter, Sarah Ferguson questions Carter Page about his actions and his insistence that he has done nothing wrong.
"In every way it's a witch hunt. There is zero basis for anything related to the controversy surrounding myself." Carter Page
In Chicago, George Papadopoulos is awaiting sentencing on charges of lying to the FBI. His wife explains how the couple became caught up in the scandal.
"He decided to cooperate with the FBI and is putting his knowledge fully at the disposal of the government...he's a piece of the puzzle...His contribution is going to make a difference." Wife of George Papadopoulos.
And the program examines how a casual drink in a London bar set off alarm bells for US intelligence services.
"The now far reaching investigation into whether Trump or his associates colluded with the Kremlin may have started here at the Kensington wine rooms with Australia's former foreign minister." Sarah Ferguson
Secrets, spies and useful idiots, the second episode of this three-part investigative special series reported and presented by Sarah Ferguson, Monday 11th June at 8.30pm. It is replayed on Tuesday 12th June at 1.00pm and Wednesday 13th at 11.20pm. It can also be seen on ABC NEWS channel on Saturday at 8.10pm AEST, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.
Transcript
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: In the heart of Moscow is the place that best represents what Vladimir Putin stands for, the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the old KGB.
MASHA GESSEN, PUTIN BIOGRAPHER: Putin sees himself still very much as a member of that corporation, as a member of the brotherhood.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: That brotherhood is now called the FSB, but it still operates inside the Lubyanka
Next door is a large toy store with a giant neon Pinocchio.
A reminder that in this city spies like Vladimir Putin have always been the puppet masters.
MASHA GESSEN, PUTIN BIOGRAPHER: Whenever he can, he has reaffirmed his allegiance to the Russian secret police.
He is still a KGB agent.
That's how he sees himself.
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: You have to remember how things work in Russia.
No big decisions are made, they all go to one guy, Putin.
So certainly, what Putin's doing is waging warfare against the United States.
That wouldn't be going on without not just his acquiescence or his blessing, but his active direction.
And again, remember his background.
He's a KGB product.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: James Clapper was Obama's Director of National Intelligence - the most senior intelligence official in the US during the election campaign.
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: There's a long history there trying to involve themselves and influence elections in our country since at least the 1960's, but never ever as aggressive, direct and multi-dimensional as this interference in our election process.
They clearly were interested in, the Russians were, I think in penetrating the Trump campaign.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Throughout the 2016 campaign grassroots support for the rogue Republican candidate grew, as Trump continued to welcome the endorsement of the Russian leader.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (March 12, 2016): Because Putin called me a genius.
Putin said Donald Trump is a genius.
Thank you, she said, you are.
Putin said good things about me.
He said, 'he's a leader and there's no question about it, he's a genius.
I love you all, thank you Ohio.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: When news broke that Russia had hacked the emails of the Democratic National Committee, directly interfering in the election. Trump not only defied political convention, he flirted with notions of treason.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (27 July 2016): Russia, if you're listening I hope you're be able to find the 30 thousand emails that are missing.
I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: By the time of the first Presidential debate in late September 2016, Russian espionage during the campaign was a hot topic
HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (26 September 2016) : I was so shocked when Donald publicly invited Putin to hack into Americans.
That is just unacceptable.
It's one of the reasons why 50 national security officials who served in Republican administrations.
LESTER HOLT, MODERATOR: Your two minutes have expired.
HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... have said that Donald is unfit to be the commander- in-chief.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC.
She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don't -- maybe it was.
I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China.
It could also be lots of other people.
It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Only a week earlier, as the candidates were doing their debate prep, a former spy arrived discreetly in the US capital on a mission involving the Presidential election.
Not a Russian spy in this case but an ex-MI6 agent and Russia expert now working as a corporate investigator.
His name was Christopher Steele.
LUKE HARDING, AUTHOR 'COLLUSION': He was hired in the spring of 2016 by Fusion GPS, a lobbying firm, the ultimate client was the Democratic party, Chris didn't know that, but the question was what is Donald Trump's relationship with Russia, so he funneled this out to his secret sources and he waited.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Steele was an MI6 agent in Moscow in the 1990's. As a private investigator he had worked on Russian cases for decades.
ANDREW WOOD, BRITISH AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA 1995-2000: The former head of, of our, secret service had a very high opinion of him, and that his professional colleagues that I know also had a good, opinion as to his professional honesty and commitment.
Like any senior, British intelligence officer he would've had close relations with, um, various branches of U.S. intelligence.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: In mid-2016, Steele's sources had provided shocking answers to the question about Trump's links to Russia.
LUKE HARDING, AUTHOR 'COLLUSION': What his sources were telling him was that essentially there was a conspiracy.
First of all, there was a real-time espionage operation to try and affect the outcome of the 2016 election, and to push Donald Trump across the line.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Steele first passed the information to the FBI but believing they had taken no action, decided to meet with a handpicked group of journalists.
Including veteran Washington reporter Michael Isikoff.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO NEWS: It was at a private room at the Tabard Inn and it was all business.
I mean Steele was there.
It was clear he took this matter very seriously.
I think that he thought he was sitting on some bombshell information that deserved to get out.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The former spy had gathered raw intelligence into a dossier about members of the Trump campaign and their links to Russia.
The information Isikoff focused on was about the recent trip to Moscow of a Trump foreign policy advisor called Carter Page.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO NEWS: He told me that Page had meetings in Moscow in which he discussed the Trump campaign and help that the Russians could provide the Trump campaign in exchange for which Trump would be favorably disposed to lift sanctions on Russia.
But what really got my attention was he said that he had reported this to the FBI because he believed it was a national security matter.
I reached a source in the US government who was aware of the particular allegations in the Steele dossier about Carter Page and confirmed to me that the FBI was indeed taking this seriously, was indeed investigating.
It was the first story to report that there was an investigation by the US intelligence community into somebody involved in the Trump campaign and their ties to Moscow.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The ritzy streets of mid-town Manhattan, home to Trump's headquarters and former Moscow banker and naval officer Carter Page.
Page was barely known in political circles when Donald Trump named him as an advisor in March 2016,
Two years later he's still embroiled in the Trump Russia investigation.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: In every way it's a witch hunt. There is zero basis for anything related to the controversy surround, surrounding myself.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: What do you mean by witch hunt?
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Let's look at the definition of a witch hunt.
This is a situation where you're trying to explain away things that you don't expect to happen, so you start attacking individuals.
That's exactly the situation we have in this instance, right?
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: How did an obscure Russo-phile like Carter Page get catapulted into Trump's advisory team?
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (August 2016): Wouldn't it be great if we actually got along with Russia?
Am I wrong in saying that?
Wouldn't it be great?
It would be really nice if we got along with Russia.
And wouldn't it be nice it we teamed up with Russia?
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The boss, Mr. Trump, wanted better relations with Russia, and he wanted that as one of his top priorities.
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (August 2016): Putin said some very good things about me, Putin is saying nice things about me.
Ok.
I said he's a strong guy.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: J.D Gordon, was director of the Trump campaign national security committee.
In early 2016 the candidate came under pressure to explain where his foreign policy advice was coming from.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: President Trump was criticized because he told the media the truth about his foreign policy advice.
He says he watched the shows, he got his information from people on Saturday shows, Sunday shows, and he got criticized for that quite a bit.
So, he was basically put in the position where he had to come up with a foreign policy team right away.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Trump brought a list of advisors to an interview with the Washington Post.
REPORTER (March 21 2016): Mr Trump welcome to the Washington Post. We heard you might be announcing your foreign policy advisory team soon...Any you can start of this morning with us?
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Well, I hadn't thought of doing it, but if you want I can give you some of the names... Carter Page, PhD; George Papadopoulos, he's an oil and energy consultant, excellent guy and I have quite a few more.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: In the chaos of the Trump campaign, Carter Page wasn't a first pick
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Had the list that Senator Sessions and I have been working on made it first to President Trump, Carter Page, obviously, would not have been on that list, because we did not know who he was.
ROGER STONE, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Every Presidential campaign, and I am a veteran of ten, forms a Foreign Policy Advisory Committee.
They have no authority to speak for the campaign.
They're zealous.
Ah in the case of Carter Page he's smart enough to know that if you can get on the committee that that's a marketable quality abroad and he's in the business of making money.
If he does it legally there's nothing wrong with that.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: You weren't a well-known figure in foreign policy circles, but you did have some substantial experience in Moscow.
Tell me about that?
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: This is another misnomer. Right?
Where people play up that I'm just the Russia guy. Right?
And I think that was part of the reason I was such a central target when they wanted to start this witch hunt, false story line, about some corrupt intent or quote unquote "Collusion with Moscow."
Well here is someone who actually lived there and worked there.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Carter Page worked in Moscow for US bank Merrill Lynch in 2004 for three years.
At the time Sergey Aleksashenko was Chairman of Merrill Lynch Moscow, he worked with Carter Page.
Aleksashenko was also deputy chairman of the Russian Central bank.
SERGEY ALEKSASHENKO, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MERRILL LYNCH, RUSSIA: He spent several years in Moscow but he was not able to speak Russian fluently.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Did he stand out in the company?
SERGEY ALEKSASHENKO, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MERRILL LYNCH, RUSSIA: No, no he left Merrill Lynch it seemed to me it was in 2007, in 2007 when he recognized he would not be promoted.
At least from the time I knew him he was very naive as I read what he said in interviews, how he behaved himself in Moscow he was very naive.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: He said he was an informal advisor to the Kremlin. Does that sound like the Carter you know?
SERGEY ALEKSASHENKO, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MERRILL LYNCH, RUSSIA: Nothing close to the truth. Look, he was, once again, he was a very, very medium level guy with no exceptional relationships.
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: I honestly, not sure I can sort him out in my own mind whether he was doing something nefarious or was just naive.
I don't know.
But I do know that he was a matter of concern to the FBI since he was on their scope since about 2013 for his interactions with known Russian operatives.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: With no proper vetting of its hastily announced team, the Trump campaign was unaware that only a few years earlier Carter Page was groomed as an asset by Russian spies.
The spies were based here at the Russian mission to the U.N in New York.
The mission is used as cover for Russia's foreign spy service - the SVR - to carry out espionage on US soil.
Deep inside the building is a special room used for secret communications.
In 2013, the FBI found a way to listen in.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: According to the FBI, Russian spies used the secure room to transmit their reports back to Moscow Centre.
It sounds like something out of a cold war novel but the reality is deadly serious.
The FBI was able to get round the security here and record two Russian agents discussing their latest target - Cater Page.
The two agents were Victor Podobnyy and Igor Sporyshev.
VICTOR PODOBNYY (ACTOR VOICE): I also promised him a lot: that I have connections in the Trade Representation, meaning that you can push contracts.
This is intelligence method to cheat.
You promise a favor for a favor.
You get the documents from him and tell him to go fuck himself.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: How did Podobny approach you? How did you come across him?
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: This was another complete nothing of a story right? I met this junior diplomat, twenty-something-year-old guy. We had a chat at the Asia Society up on Park Avenue, here.
And we had a chitchat, no big deal.
We exchanged cards, stayed in touch a little bit.
DAN HOFFMAN, FORMER MOSCOW CIA STATION CHIEF: The way that they work sometimes they'll spot someone who looks like they might be potentially of some interest and they'll take a look at them and see whether the person has interesting access, that is to power brokers in the United States and then whether they might be suitable for clandestine operations.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: In a series of meetings in New York.
Page gave Podobny information on the energy market that was publicly available.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The level of interaction and engagement with him and the types of things we talked about, you know if you talk about intelligence gathering, let's just put it this way: it was at a much lower level than my average student sitting in my classroom at NYU.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: In the FBI transcripts of their conversations, the spies focused on Carter Page's interest in Russia's biggest energy company, Gazprom. VICTOR PODOBNYY (ACTOR VOICE) He went to Moscow and forgot to check his inbox, but he wants to meet when he gets back.
I think he's an idiot.
He got hooked on Gazprom thinking that if they have a project, he could rise up.
Maybe he can.
I don't know, but it's obvious he wants to earn lots of money.
IGOR SPORYSHEV (ACTOR VOICE) Without a doubt
VICTOR PODOBNYY (ACTOR VOICE) For now, his enthusiasm works for me.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: They're talking about Gazprom right?
I know some of the top people in that company.
If they were actually gonna bribe me or try to do some crazy scheme for whatever purpose, I don't know whatever conspiracy theory you wanna throw out there, you think you know they might do that more directly with some better contact either in Moscow or London or something rather than this twenty-something-year-old kid in New York.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The FBI decided it was time to step in.
They called Carter Page to a meeting at the Plaza Hotel near his office, to tell him the real identity of the man he was dealing with.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: It must have been a surprise when the FBI came to see you...
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I had been speaking to the CIA and FBI on countless occasions over decades, right? No big deal. So, surprise? No, not really.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: But in this case-
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: People reach out to me, and I'm happy to help.
You know, it's similar to my volunteering in the Trump campaign.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Sure, though Podobny was an agent for the SVR. He was the real thing, and he was trying to cultivate you as an asset. So that's a real thing.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: He never cultivated anything as an asset, so that's a complete misnomer.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The spies were indicted for espionage in 2015, but because they had diplomatic cover they were allowed to leave the US.
Carter Page wasn't accused of any wrongdoing.
But he was now on the FBI's books as a potential Russian asset.
By the middle of 2016 Donald Trump was close to clinching the Republican nomination...
Behind the scene Page was trying to insert himself into the campaign.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I told him I didn't need to hear anything he had to say about Russia, 'cause he had all these ideas and thoughts, and I said, "Carter, look. Mr. Trump's world view is fairly clear: he wants to have better relations with Russia.
We don't need to get into the details of that. You don't need that for the campaign."
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Page might have continued to fly under the media radar had he not accepted an invitation during the campaign to deliver a speech in Russia...
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I'd spoken at a lot of the top universities in Moscow countless times before over the years, and I was offered, invited to come then.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I advised him against it.
I thought it would reflect poorly on the campaign, and it would generate a lot of negative publicity.
He eventually went around me to the campaign chairman and got permission anyway, and he went.
Uh, and we've been paying the price since then, unfortunately.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Page had been selected by the Russians to give the commencement speech at the New Economics School in Moscow - the same event President Barack Obama spoke at in 2009.
Page's mostly turgid address included one section on Russia bound to please his hosts.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN (7 July 2016): Thank you very much.
Washington and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often-hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: On his journey home, Page emailed the Trump campaign, boasting of the high-level contacts he'd made in Moscow fueling speculation that there was more going on than a simple speech.
He wrote - "I'll send you guys a readout soon regarding some incredible insights and outreach I've received from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here."
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: is it possible that you were overstating your connections in order to make yourself look good with the campaign? We call it, big noting in Australia.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: So what is the basis for your conspiracy theory?
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: It's not so much conspiracy theory, I'm just asking whether you were exaggerating the contacts you had,
CARTER PAGE: What I can explain to you is the nature of the constant interrogation I've had for two years now. Right?
You are typical, no offence to you, but you're typical of what I have to deal with all the time. Right?
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: To be straight, what we're looking for is clarity, that's all. So there's a series of things that have been said about you-
CARTER PAGE: What you're saying is taking a step away from clarity-
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Well let's go back to-
CARTER PAGE: you're just throwing more mud in the water.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Let's go back to clarity. Let's get on track to that- CARTER PAGE: Okay.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: because obviously what happened as a result of that particular trip is that your life went really significantly off the rails.
CARTER PAGE: No, but you're insinuating that, that's me.
That's not my action, that's the fact that they have a photo of me in Moscow. Right?
So, if you have this false theory out there and you want to attack someone, and you have someone who's a supporter of this individual, and a photo of him in Moscow, this is wonderful jackpot, and that's what it's all about.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Dan Hoffman was one of America's top spies - he was CIA station chief in Moscow.
He's back now in the CIA homeland of Virginia.
Hoffman recognizes Page's value as a target for Russian espionage.
DAN HOFFMAN, FORMER MOSCOW CIA STATION CHIEF: If Carter Page had asked me before he went to Moscow, "Hey, what should I be concerned about?" I would have said, "You're under a microscope like you've never been.
You are a person of interest, and they will be tracking you.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: We don't know who was tracking Page on the Russian side.
But the former MI6 officer Christopher Steele was being sent information about Page from his sources in Moscow.
Less than 2 weeks after Page's trip, Steele filed a memo recording details of Page's visit to Moscow.
According to Steele, Page had met senior Russian officials, including Igor Sechin, head of Russian oil giant Rosneft - Russia's 2nd largest state-owned energy company.
SERGEY ALEKSASHENKO, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO, MERRILL LYNCH, RUSSIA: Rosneft is a huge, the biggest Russian oil company.
That, okay, grabbed assets, stolen assets, nationalised assets of other companies.
I would say it's maybe 35, 37 percent of Russian oil production.
It's really big company.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Rosneft HQ sits on the Moscow River overlooking the Kremlin ... CEO Igor Sechin is a close ally of Putin's.
Igor Sechin was personally targeted by US sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine the toughest sanctions ever imposed by the US on Russia
Michael McFaul was ambassador to Moscow under Obama.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Igor Sechin had a great interest, a profound interest in having those sanctions lifted?
MICHAEL MCFAUL, US AMBASSADOR TO RUSSIA 2012-2014: Without question.
I mean, remember, he's on the sanctions list.
He can't travel to the United States.
It's hard to be the CEO of the largest oil company in Russia if you can't travel to the United States when your chief partner is located in Houston.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Did you meet Igor Sechin on your visit to Moscow?
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Never. I never met him then, and I've never met him at any time in my life.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Steele's sources claimed that Sechin offered energy deals for the US if Trump would lift the sanctions and a personal kick back for Carter Page.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: What I can tell you for sure, without question is, there was never any discussion of any quid pro quo or anything, I myself or anyone I was supporting at the time could possibly do to change that one particular policy, which is sort of a piece of minutiae in a much broader set of issues.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The sanctions issue isn't a minutiae issue, it's a big deal.
Whatever else we know, we know that those people who are targeted by sanctions would very much like the sanctions to be lifted, so it is a significant subject.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: To me, it is minutia so you're free to have your opinion. I think now I'm free to have mine
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Page has repeatedly denied meeting Sechin in Moscow.
But under oath to the congressional committee he conceded he had met with another Rosneft official - Andrei Baranov.
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: So what?
This is a complete joke.
We went to a party to watch the Euro Cup football match. Right?
It's organised by a bank, it's a packed bar in Moscow.
There's tonnes of people there and we're watching a football game.
Portugal I think, was playing Wales that day.
Everyone's focused on Ronaldo's goal. Right?
So that was sort of the topic of conversation.
We had a brief chat and so, this is just sort of the desperation of various DNC operatives to this day trying to make something out of nothing.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: So did you discuss sanctions with Baranov?
I can't say that I'm careful in terms of the wording. Right?
Look, sanctions is a topic that people in the economy talk about at some point.
Did it possibly come up? I have no recollection. I have no idea. It may have been a couple of words in passing.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO NEWS: It's interesting because Page denied everything, just sort of sweeping, this is all nonsense, nothing like this is true.
When he finally was forced to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, turns out that those denials were not quite as air-tight as he initially suggested.
It does suggest that there was something real that Steele was picking up on.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The former Moscow station chief has a different theory about the information Steele collected.
DAN HOFFMAN, FORMER MOSCOW CIA STATION CHIEF: I can tell you from my own experience, it's extraordinarily difficult to collect intelligence inside Russia.
It's especially difficult to do it in that way when the person who was collecting that information, Steele, didn't travel himself to Russia.
The Russians might have been tracking him as well, and certainly tracking his sources travelling inside to Russia or trying to collect information inside Russia.
And then once they spotted that, if my theory is right, then they would have used the dossier as a conduit for their own disinformation.
KELLYANNE CONWAY, CNN INTERVIEW (25 September 2016): He's not part of our national security or foreign policy
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: When news of Page's trip to Russia broke in the media, he was denounced by Trump's team.
REPORTER (25 September 2016): No.
He is certainly not part of the campaign that I am running meaning we don't have him, have a number of people, fabulous people in our foreign policy team and he is not among them.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Unfortunately, Carter Page fell right into the trap, he walked right into the lion's den, dragging the rest of us with him.
And deep state folks like James Comey they latched onto this piece of evidence to say, "Oh ho! There could be collusion, Carter Page!"
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: You must've felt bad about the fact that, I think you said that you'd, "caused embarrassment to the campaign"
CARTER PAGE, FOREIGN POLICY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I didn't cause, "embarrassment to the campaign." Just to be clear.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: This is a complete smear from people that were paid millions of dollars, those big dollar funded propaganda campaign to just tear someone down. So it's pretty sad actually.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Page was investigated by the FBI but never charged with wrong doing.
He was out of the campaign.
But another of Trump's foreign policy advisors was targeted by Russian spies in a game with even higher stakes.
It's been a bitterly cold winter in Chicago, another city where the Trump brand has made its mark.
This is the hometown of Donald Trump's former foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos.
One of the central characters in the case for collusion.
DAN HOFFMAN, FORMER MOSCOW CIA STATION CHIEF: The question you always ask is are they witting or unwitting of Russian interest in them. Papadopoulos may not have been witting of Russian intelligence interest in him.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Papadopoulos was arrested last October for lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts during the campaign.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: He said when he was arrested he gave my number to the agents.
Like say please call her to say what has happened to me.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: His wife Simona, a lawyer, is telling his story, because he can't.
Papadopoulos is co-operating with Mueller's investigation of Trump campaign officials.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: When time is right, he will share his own experience.
So as far as I know, Russia was a priority and they were informed of every initiative, he would take.
His purpose was to look bigger and to please his bosses.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: George was a young guy in his 20s, a very ambitious guy.
But he really didn't have the qualifications to be on the national security advisory committee.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Just like Carter Page, Papadopoulos was plucked from obscurity to join Donald Trump's team of advisors.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I inherited George and I inherited Carter and the others.
So, my job was to manage them and to make sure that they, didn't embarrass the campaign and didn't embarrass Mr. Trump.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: In the end what happened to Papadopoulos went way beyond embarrassment.
Papadopoulos' story takes us to London, the location of so many Russian spy stories from the cold war to the present day.
Here in 2016 - soon after he was named as an adviser to the Trump campaign - Papadopoulos was cultivated by a Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud who boasted of high level kremlin contacts.
DAN HOFFMAN: He's not someone that Papadopoulos would have been worried about meeting.
What you don't realize is that behind that guy maybe there are some nefarious people with some nefarious aims.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: Until this name come up, which is Joseph Mifsud, at the time, I didn't know it was the genesis of the entire Russian investigation.
I didn't know any of that.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Professor Joseph Mifsud taught at universities in the U-K and Europe and ran an organisation called the London Centre of International Law Practice
Simona worked for Mifsud.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: They never paid me, and they said don't worry, you have to think big, they told me. Joseph Mifsud said you have to think big, you don't have to think about the salary.
I thought everything was a facade for something different. I thought everything was extremely unclear and unprofessional, my feeling were he was the most shady person I ever met.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Did you have any sense of his connections to Russia at that point?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: Yes, because he was constantly in Moscow.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Professor Mifsud's first offer to Papadopoulos was to use his connections in the Kremlin to broker a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: He wish he could organize such a meeting.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Between Trump and Putin?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: Yes.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Excited by the prospect, he took Mifsud's offer to a meeting of the foreign policy committee, headed by future attorney general Jeff Sessions with the candidate Donald Trump.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: The one meeting we did have with President Trump in March of 2016, George floated the idea of a meeting with Putin and Mr Trump.
And that meeting, the idea was shot down by Senator Sessions, and the Senator asked us not to ever speak about it again, 'cause it was a bad idea for a lot of reasons.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO NEWS: There are contradictory accounts of what happened in this meeting.
Others at the meeting say this idea was dismissed, but Papadopoulos has said something different.
He's told Mueller's investigators that he believes he got a green light.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: What was his understanding about whether it was encouraged to continue?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: I can't answer straight this question, because again, it's the hot topic of the investigation, but I would give my personal opinion, which is it's very unlikely that a young foreign policy advisor would take an initiative or put forward an initiative without the blessing of the campaign.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Papadopoulos says his efforts to make contact with the Kremlin were approved by senior campaign officials.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: He checked everything with the campaign. He wasn't running around-
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: No.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: doing it himself?
SIMONA MANGIANTE: Absolutely not. No, never. Steve Bannon definitely, Michael Flynn. Yes, he was touch with them. Bryan Lanza.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: And all of them, Steve Bannon, Lanza, Flynn, all encouraged him to continue his liaison with Russians?
SIMONA MANGIANTE Yes. He was trying to set up a meeting between Putin and Trump. He never was stopped in this purpose.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: On April 26th Mifsud invited Papadopoulos to breakfast at a hotel in London's business district
This was two months before the news broke about the Russian attack on the Democratic National Committee.
Professor Mifsud had just returned from a trip to Russia.
He had astonishing news.
Over breakfast Mifsud told Papadopoulos he'd met high level Russian officials on his trip to Moscow those officials he said had dirt on candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails - it's not clear where Mifsud got his information or why he passed it on to the young American - but the information was correct.
It seems likely the Russians targeted George Papadopoulos to pass that information back to the trump campaign.
DAN HOFFMAN, FORMER MOSCOW CIA STATION CHIEF: There's that possibility the Russians were throwing this out as a little bit of churn in the water, a little blood in the water there for the sharks to come out.
It would have been the kind of thing that they would have been happy to give up, and it would have served their purposes.
The best way for Vladimir Putin, the best way to soil our democratic process, was link it in some conspiratorial way back to the Kremlin.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Did George tell the campaign what Mifsud had told him?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: This is the objective of the investigation going on.
There is secrecy out of that.
I can't talk about it.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: For the special prosecutor looking for evidence of collusion this piece of the puzzle could prove to be critical.
We don't know who in the campaign Papadopoulos told about the Russian stolen emails
But we do know he passed on the information to another contact in London soon afterwards
At a wine bar in South Kensington Papadopoulos met Australia's high commissioner Alexander Downer.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: How did he come to meet Alexander Downer?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: I think he was introduced to him by his assistant.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Downer's colleague from the High Commission organized and attended the meeting...a witness to the conversation
It's been widely reported that Downer and Papadopoulos were drunk - both men deny it.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: I don't know how many they had to drink, the two guys, the ambassador and George. It basically fed into this witch hunt of, here's this kid in his 20s mouthing off to this Australian ambassador who he probably shouldn't have even been with in the first place.
Both of them over drinks, and then that gets through the Australian Intelligence to the US National Intelligence Agencies.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Papadopoulos told Downer that the Russians had dirt on Hilary Clinton and were planning to use it.
Downer promptly cabled the startling information back to Canberra .... after careful deliberation it was passed on to the American authorities, prompting the FBI to open an investigation and send agents to London to interview Downer.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: So, the now far reaching investigation into whether Trump or his associates colluded with the Kremlin may have started here at the Kensington wine rooms with Australia's former foreign minister.
MICHAEL ISIKOFF, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT, YAHOO NEWS: Opening up an investigation about a presidential candidate's campaign in the midst of a campaign is, that's a big step to take.
And the FBI is going to be cautious about doing something like that.
It doesn't necessarily mean that they think that there's active collaboration by people in the Trump camp, although you can't rule that out, but you want to understand what a major foreign adversary is doing on your soil.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: Last year, 6 months into the new presidency, after a summer holiday with Simona, Papadopoulos flew back to the US.
He was still hoping to secure a job in the Trump administration.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: I was with my sister in Rome, and just waiting for his flight to land. Then he was messaging me from the shuttle train
At some point he tell me, I see somebody staring at me in a suit and tie, and it's quite weird, weird look.
I thought it was paranoia. Maybe he was jetlagged.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: The man in the red tie was an FBI agent - he arrested Papadopoulos and took his phone.
And then silence?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: Yeah.
They took him to jail, then to the courtroom, all this in the space probably of 48 hours, and he was literally scared to death.
COREY LEWANADOWSKI, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER, MSNBC INTERVIEW: To the best of my knowledge, George Papadopoulos never had a Donald Trump email address ever in his life, he was a volunteer like the tens of thousands.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: As the bearer of another scandal linked to Russia, when news of Papadopoulos's charges broke, he was immediately denounced by the President and his former campaign colleagues
MICHAEL CAPUTO, FORMER TRUMP CAMPAIGN ADVISOR (31 OCT 2017): He was the coffee boy.
He had nothing to do with the campaign and all of this contact with alleged Russians, is something completely beyond the scope of his volunteer duties.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: He wasn't the coffee boy, obviously, because that- then that fell into the narrative of well, if he's the coffee boy, why is he sitting in a meeting with the current attorney general and the current president, right in the middle?
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: George was constantly in touch with the high-level officials.
He helped organizing the meeting between Trump and el-Sisi, the Egyptian President.
So I mean of course, this is not a task of a coffee boy.
He really was approved in anything he did.
He was not a freelancer taking initiative on his own.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI
He surrendered his passport and is waiting for sentencing.
For now, he's bound by his deal with the Mueller investigation to remain silent.
SIMONA MANGIANTE, WIFE OF GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS: George is the person who was the target identified by Mifsud to offer those hacked emails.
He decided to cooperate with the F.B.I. and is putting his knowledge fully at disposal of the government.
As I said he's a piece of the puzzle, but he's an important piece and his contribution is going to make a difference.
JD GORDON, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: This is the witch hunt of the century, and it's a hoax meant to destroy the president, and dozens of people around him.
It's sickening, and the people who are doing these things - the media, and the members of Congress - really need to be held accountable.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: You saw your nation convulsed by division caused by the Watergate Scandal.
How does this compare?
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: I don't think, I think what's going on now makes that pale.
That was purely a domestic thing.
We didn't have the involvement of a foreign adversary, our prime foreign adversary, Russia, in that and so to me it's much more worrisome.
SARAH FERGUSON, REPORTER: So, these are dangerous times?
JAMES CLAPPER, US DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2010-2017: They are.
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