Investigators are taking a closer look at Carter Page's September 2016 trip to Hungary where the Trump foreign policy advisor met with two government officials and presented himself as a member of the candidate's foreign policy team.
Page first met with Jeno Megyesy, a close adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, at Megyesy's parliament office. Later, he had coffee at a hotel with Hungarian Ambassador to the United States Reka Szemerkenyi, whom Page had first met at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.
ABC News explains Congressional investigators are interested in Hungary because of the "increasingly close ties between Hungary and Russia and the role of the country as a hub for Russian intelligence activity. The Hungarian prime minister was the first foreign leader to endorse Donald Trump’s candidacy."
House Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) asked Page about his trip during closed door testimony, and Page only revealed he met with the Ambassador, whose full name he could not recall:
“You don’t remember the names of anyone you met with or what their positions were in the Hungarian government?” Schiff asked, according to a transcript of the closed-door session.
“Not right now,” Page replied. “I can’t recall.”
Page told the members he could only barely remember the visit, saying “the detailed specifics of that are a distant memory.”
But Schiff was incredulous. “You went all the way to Budapest, and you can’t remember who you met with and what you hoped to accomplish?” he asked.
Trump campaign adviser Carter Page held high-level meetings with Hungarian officials in Budapest (ABC News)