On Saturday, the Justice Department released a number of documents tied to the wiretapping of former campaign adviser Carter Page, who resigned from the Trump campaign in the fall of 2016 after American intelligence officials began investigating his meeting with a senior Russian government official. The F.B.I. stated that it believes Russia was attempting to recruit Page, but Page has repeatedly and categorically denied being any sort of Russian agent—though he did call himself an “informal adviser” in a 2013 letter.

On Sunday, during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union, a smiling Page told Jake Tapper that the allegations that he was working for Russia are a “spin,” a “ridiculous smear campaign,” and “literally a complete joke”—but said that, yes, the “informal adviser” stuff was true. In the documents released on Saturday, the F.B.I. wrote that Russia, at least, tried very hard to turn Page into one of its own. “The F.B.I. believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government,” the document states, to “undermine and influence the outcome of the 2016 U.S. presidential election in violation of U.S. criminal law.”

“I’ve never been an agent of [a] foreign power by any stretch of the imagination,” Page said on Sunday. He acknowledged to Tapper that “there may have been a loose conversation” with Russian officials about U.S. sanctions and “a few people might have brought it up in passing,” but “there was nothing in terms of any nefarious behavior.” He repeatedly denied having any sort of advisory contact with Russian officials until Tapper brought up Page’s own phrase, “informal adviser,” from a 2013 letter.

“It’s really the pot calling the kettle black,” Page said, claiming that the documents themselves are planting the very same “false and misleading articles” they purport to be against.