In 2013, Carter Page, an energy consultant and future campaign adviser to Donald Trump, was targeted for recruitment by Russian spies, BuzzFeed News reports.
Page first met Victor Podobnyy, a Russian intelligence operative working at the time at Moscow's U.N. office in New York, in January 2013 at an energy conference. In January 2015, after federal investigators broke up a Russian spy ring looking for details on how to develop alternative energy, Podobnyy and two other Russians were charged by the U.S. government for acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government, BuzzFeed News reports. In a complaint filed by the government, there is the transcript of a recorded conversation between Podobnyy and another man, with Podobnyy discussing his attempt to recruit someone referred to as "Male-1." Page confirmed to BuzzFeed News that he is "Male-1."
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