Carter Page's attempt to insert himself into the AT&T merger gets rebuffed by judge and Justice Dept lawyer

The Trump administration on Thursday made their distaste for Carter Page even more apparent when a Justice Department lawyer took the unusual step of asking a federal judge to throw out an amicus brief he'd written on the basis of its irrelevancy.

As Vanity Fair's Tina Nguyen reported for The Hive, Page's amicus brief against the Time Warner-AT&T merger was not only self-aggrandizing (he claimed he knew the merger was bad because he'd been targeted by the "telecommunications-media oligopoly") -- it also has drawn the ire of his former employer.

Justice Department attorney Craig Conrath told the judge presiding over the hearing about the merger that the DOJ's Anti-Trust Division doesn't generally "oppose amicus briefs in the district courts,” but Page's brief appears to be a special case.

"Dr. Page’s submission does not appear to be meaningfully relevant to the issues in this case," Conrath said.

The judge appeared to agree with the the DOJ lawyer, and denied Page's brief. In response, the unfettered former Trump adviser said he was "not disappointed at all."