New revelations at the Congressional hearings into Russia’s interference into last year’s American elections provide powerful evidence for allegations first presented by the Hungarian Free Press in April of this year. (See: András B. Göllner. „The Budapest Bridge”. Hungarian Free Press, April 13, 14, 21, 2017, and its sequel „Creatures in the Budapest Hills”.) In the 243 page transcript of Carter Page’s closed door testimony to the House Intelligence Committee, released earlier this week, the former member of the Trump team’s Foreign Relations Advisory Group made some startling revelations that will surely broaden the focus of the hearings. It will no doubt add additional fuel to the parallel criminal investigation headed by Robert Mueller, the Special Investigator appointed by the US Department of Justice.
Along the way, the new revelations may also help to explain the sudden and so far unexplained removal of Réka Szemerkényi, from her post as Hungary’s Ambassador to the US. The former Ambassador is a close personal confidant and friend of Hungary’s pro-Russian strongman, Viktor Orbán. She often boasted that she had the best access to the Trump team in Washington. When pressed for his motivation in firing his close confident, the Hungarian autocrat shrugged his shoulders and said: “I do not concern myself with women’s issues”. That careless comment may come back to haunt him.
The revelations by Carter Page may also cause some sleepless nights for J.D. Gordon, who was Page’s boss, and Jeff Session’s deputy director of the Trump campaign’s National Security and Foreign Policy Team. We have reported earlier on Gordon’s Hungarian visits to Budapest, his own liaison with the Hungarian Embassy in Washington. We questioned his relationship with a group in Hungary, the AJTK, which is well known as one of the Hungarian government’s highly funded money-laundromats – a “think tank” that strives to whitewash many of Orbán’s rule of law violations.
No doubt, Congressional investigators and Robert Mueller will be keen to know, how Gordon profited from his Hungarian connections, and why did he and Jeff Sessions heaped lavish praise, during the Trump campaign, on a government that many around the world, including the European Parliament, has branded as a Human Rights and Rule of Law violator.
Mr. Page was grilled, late last week, about his Russian contacts, and his contacts with the Ambassador of a country, Hungary, that is internationally recognized as Vladimir Putin’s Trojan Horse within the Western Alliance, a country that anyone with an ounce of Foreign Policy savvy knows, is the European Headquarters of Putin’s secret services.
A few months ago, Page casually revealed that during last year’s Labor Day long weekend he visited Budapest to relax by the Danube. (See Natasha Bertrand. „US and European Officials Spied on Me in Budapest.” Business Insider. July 20, 2017.) In his new testimony, he tells a different story. He admitted under pressure, that his visit was arranged by the government of Hungary. Page admitted, that he met the Hungarian Ambassador to Washington at the Republican Convention, and engaged her in a conversation about US-Russian relations. He admitted, that the Hungarian Ambassador’s offer to set up a visit for him, may have been due to her knowledge of his role as a Foreign Policy Advisor to Trump. Page admitted to meeting senior Hungarian government officials in Budapest, and to talking to them about US-Russian relations. He also admitted that there were Russians participating in these conversations, and that he kept up his contact with one of the Hungarian officials, after his return to the US. When pressed for names and details of his Hungarian meetings, Carter Page suddenly froze. He developed a powerful case of amnesia, and blamed his loss of memory, on the hostile media attacks he’d been subjected to during the past year.
Carter Page’s amnesia appears to be similar to the one his former campaign boss, J. D. Gordon is suffering from. The latter has gone through many a mental metamorphosis regarding his own visits to Budapest, or about his financial contracts with one of the Hungarian government’s money laundering outfits. His reflection on the role he played in softening up the Republican Convention’s resolution on the Ukraine has provided more zig zags than the great Wayne Gretzky showed us during his illustrious career in the National Hockey league.
The new Congressional revelations add further proof for the wisdom of applying a tight leash on witnesses that may come before the investigators, such as Paul Manafort, who is reportedly forced to wear ankle shackles while being confined to house arrest before his upcoming court date. Evidence tampering is a serious crime in countries that follow the Rule of Law. So are efforts to silence witnesses who may help to further investigations into the wrongdoings of public officials. The Washington Times in a recent article has reported on Gordon’s own efforts to silence this writer. (See here.)
The coming weeks may reveal much more to us about “The Ugly Americans” on Donald Trump’s electoral team than anything we have heard before. Stay tuned to these pages.
András Göllner