The Trump administration released the documents on Friday, following threats of a lawsuit from publications like the New York Times and USA Today to obtain them. The documents were heavily redacted.
As found in the records, Conway approved a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in April 2017. According to the warrant, Page, who was employed as a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, was allegedly working as “agent of Russia.”
After Conway, a University of Florida alum, was nominated to the court by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in November 1991.
According to a report from the Washington Post, the other three judges who approved the wiretapping of Page were also appointed Republican presidents – two by George W. Bush and one by Ronald Reagan.
In 2016, Conway was appointed to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court by U.S. Chief Justice John Robert, a President George W. Bush appointee, on a rotating basis. According to the court’s website, judges can serve a maximum of seven years, albeit in staggered terms.
The court – established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 – is intended to examine applications by the U.S. government for approval of surveillance for “foreign intelligence purposes.”
As if it’s second nature at this point, Trump took issue with the information available within the documents.
In a fact-challenged Twitter rant on Sunday, the president sputtered:
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This article appears in Jul 18-24, 2018.