WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Giraldi pointed out that Jeff Sessions was potentially in trouble because it appeared that he might have lied about knowing of Carter Page's trip to Russia. However, the upcoming interrogation of the US Attorney General by the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee could only entangle him in the so-called "Russia Gate" and eventually make the whole saga more complicated.
"The rest of it is nonsense as it seeks to criminalize anyone traveling to Moscow to engage in dialogue with Russians," the former CIA and US Army intelligence officer told Sputnik.
Page advised Republican candidate Donald Trump on foreign policy during the 2016 presidential campaign, but held no official position in Trump’s organization, Giraldi said.
Page’s latest testimony provided no new support for the still unfounded claims that the Trump campaign secretly collaborated with the Russian government during the 2016 election campaign, Giraldi pointed out.
"The new testimony tells us nothing about the fundamental issue which the investigation is clearly seeking to demonstrate that Russia somehow intervened to change the result of an American national election, that it did so deliberately with malice and forethought," he said.
The collaboration accusations remain entirely without any credible corroboration, Giraldi observed.
"I do not believe that any of that is true and that if it were true it would have been demonstrated unambiguously long before now," he said.
Also, the claim that Russia or Russian-backed hackers extracted confidential emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) embarrassing to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton still remain entirely unproven, Giraldi reiterated.
During the summer of 2016, thousands of DNC emails and other data, including the personal emails of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta, were made public by WikiLeaks. US intelligence agencies have accused Russia of having a role in the DNC breach, but have not provided any proof or information on how they reached that conclusion.
The Russian government has repeatedly denied meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, saying the US allegations are absurd and intended to deflect public attention from actual instances of election fraud and corruption as well as other domestic issues.
Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee are set to question the US Attorney General about statements he has made regarding Russia and the campaign of President Donald Trump when he appears at an oversight hearing on November 14, according to a letter from the Democrats to Jeff Sessions.
Philip Giraldi is executive director of the Council for the National Interest, a group that advocates more even-handed US government policies in the Middle East.
