'Carter Page is chump change': Ex-CIA officer claims feds are focusing on White House higher-ups

Appearing on the on-line only "Overtime" segment of HBO's Real Time, ex-CIA officer Philip Mudd said that while the media is focusing on ex-Trump advisor Carter Page, it is likely that federal investigators are working on "flipping" other Trump transition officials to testify against their bosses.

"What do you think will come of the investigation into Trump campaign adviser Cater Page and his ties to Russia, and I might add Michael Flynn," host Bill Maher asked Mudd.

"Look, the reason Carter Page is being featured is because he's prominent in the press, not because he's the most prominent target of the FBI," Mudd remarked. "I think there will eventually be an indictment. Somebody going to be indicted, I don't know if it's going to be Carter Page -- I think he's chump change, I think it's someone higher up."

Asked to elaborate, Mudd explained that, based on what the FBI has heard from their "intercepts" of Trump transition officials talking with Russian officials, they will use that evidence to get those officials to "flip" and spill what they know in order to avoid being indicted on federal charges.

"They've got to have a significant amount of intercepts, that is communications with the Russians that led them down this path," Mudd explained. "Then you are going to get people who are going to flip because you're going to walk in and say, 'Son, you either get a federal charge or you're going to talk.' That person is going to go home to their wife and kids and say 'I don't want three hots and a cot in the federal pen. I'll talk.'"

Watch the video below via HBO: