Carter Page called Monday for Congress to authorize reparations for himself and others caught up in the federal government’s investigation into the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Mr. Page, a former aide to President Trump’s election campaign, argued in an interview that he is owed as a result of being subjected to surveillance by the Department of Justice.
“I am calling for reparations, similar to an act in 1988 signed by the Regan administration which provided reparations for Japanese Americans whose civil liberties were violated during World War Two,” Mr. Page told the Daily Caller.
“I think the time has now come for Congress to pass legislation which provides some reparations for the countless Americans whose lives were upended by these criminal activities,” Mr. Page added.
Mr. Page, a 48-year-old petroleum industry consultant, briefly served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign during the president’s run for the White House in 2016.
It later emerged that he was among several individuals tied to the Trump campaign who were subjected to surveillance by U.S. officials probing Russian involvement in the race.
“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – for political reasons, as well – was spied upon in the 1960s. This is very similar in many ways but takes it so many steps forward,” Mr. Page told the Daily Caller.
“Given what we know now about high technology and the power of the surveillance state, what was done to myself – and not just me, but so many members of the Trump campaign, transition team and the Trump administration – is literally unprecedented when you kind of tie those pieces together,” he added.
Led by Robert Mueller, a former FBI director, the government’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election concluded that the Russian government attempted to interfere in the race but failed to find any evidence of collusion on the part of individuals close to Mr. Trump.
More than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry were interned by the U.S. in camps during World War II beginning shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nearly 50 years later, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 signed by Regan granted reparations to former internees in the form of around $20,000 apiece.
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