Trump adviser: Carter Page 'went around me directly to campaign leadership' to receive permission for Moscow trip

One-time Trump campaign foreign policy adviser initially asked his direct supervisor if he could travel to Moscow for an academic conference last summer. When he was dissuaded, he went around that supervisor to ask then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Page's then-boss J.D. Gordon, who was director of the Trump campaign's National Security Advisory Committee, told Business Insider that Page copied him and campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks on the email he sent to Lewandowski after he initially turned down the adviser's request.

"I discouraged Carter from taking the trip to Moscow in the first place because it was a bad idea," Gordon said. "Since I refused to forward his speech request form for approval, he eventually went around me directly to campaign leadership."

Lewandowski, Business Insider points out, claimed earlier this year that he never granted anyone permission to travel to Moscow -- a claim Page refuted in his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last week.

"Tell [Lewandowski] to look up the email I sent to him, Corey, and someone else on June 19, 2016," Page told Business Insider. "Corey replied first. We are all reaching the heights of irrelevancy."