NPR

What You Need To Know About The Much-Discussed Carter Page FISA Document

The FBI has declassified a seldom-seen application for surveillance on someone it suspected of being a Russian agent working for Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
Democrats, led by House intelligence committee ranking member Adm Schiff, left, have been dueling with Republicans, led by House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, right, for months over the FISA document.

A hot new document offers a sliver of new understanding to the Russia imbroglio — but has not dislodged warring partisans from their long-term deadlock about evidence and surveillance in the case.

What is it?

The FBI has released an application to conduct surveillance of an American under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It's heavily redacted but still significant — these are some of the most secret papers in official Washington and very seldom ever seen by people without specialized security clearances.

The dispute over the document boils down to this: did the Justice Department and the FBI violate the rights of a onetime junior foreign policy aide to the Donald Trump campaign, Carter Page?

Page, Trump and Republicans say

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