Ex-Trump campaign aide grilled on CNN over election 'conspiracy theories' debunked by IG report

On Saturday, CNN's Michael Smerconish confronted former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page — who has long cast himself as a victim of a sinister FBI plot — with the upcoming results of the Justice Department inspector general report finding there was no deliberate bias against the president in the FBI's investigation of Russia.

"Look, I'm looking at the front page of today's New York Times," said Smerconish. "'Report is said to clear FBI of bias claims, but sloppiness is cited in Russian inquiry' ... what I, as a citizen, am most interested in, with no disrespect to your personal interests, was the probe born of bias? And the answer to that is, no."

"Well, Michael, I think you — the key word that you just said is 'sloppiness,' right? And unfortunately, the way that this inspector general report has been assembled and completed over the last couple of years, and particularly over the last few months, is completely sloppy," said Page. "It's only one side's perspective. we'll see whether what The New York Times reported is the complete story, but by all accounts, you know, all I know is [IG Michael] Horowitz, in September, had said that they've interviewed 100 people. And most of these people were involved in this coup, cabal, from the very beginning. So it's been very sloppy all along."

"I was most interested to learn what, apparently, this report is going to say about this mystery man from Malta, Joseph Mifsud," said Smerconish. "For those who know the underlying facts, he tells [ex-Trump aide George] Papadopoulos that the Russians have dirt on Hillary, and the allegation has been that he was really an FBI person. Apparently, Horowitz will say that is not the case, that he was not an FBI informant. Again, I'm focused on how it all began. It doesn't seem it began of bias."

"Again, if you have bad facts, then the law, you can do whatever you want with it, basically," insisted Page. "There's massive questions. I think maybe we'll get a few initial facts here in this preliminary report on December 9, but you know, there's obviously so much more to be done on this."

Watch below: