Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) talked openly about how much he was looking forward to becoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In fact, the GOP senator made no secret of how he intended to use his gavel, telling reporters about his questions about Hillary Clinton’s emails and Republican conspiracy theories about Carter Page.

Evidently, Graham wasn’t kidding. The Senate Judiciary Committee issued a press statement yesterday, alerting reporters to the fact that Graham has now written a letter to Attorney General William Barr, “requesting documents related to potential abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant process.”

“… the Committee is concerned that the Woods procedures and a full presentment of material and relevant facts may not have occurred with regard to the applications for FISA warrants for (and the opening of the underlying investigations on) Carter Page and other individuals associated with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” wrote Graham. He continued, “Accordingly, the Committee will continue to examine this Congress, as this Committee and several other congressional committees did last Congress, potential abuse of the FISA and investigation initiation processes with regard to Carter Page and others associated with the Trump campaign.”

Broadly speaking, I think there are a couple of angles to keep in mind in response to a story like this. The first is that Graham, who has considerable power in one of Capitol Hill’s most important committee roles, is showing strange judgment.

There is, after all, credible evidence that the sitting president of the United States financed an illegal hush-money scheme, which in a normal political era, might be of interest to the Senate Judiciary Committee. In 2019, however, its chairman is far more interested in conspiracy theories related to Carter Page.

The second angle of interest is the simple fact that conspiracy theories related to Carter Page have always been difficult to take seriously.

For those who may need a refresher, let’s circle back to our earlier coverage. Donald Trump’s allies have invested a considerable amount of time and energy into a curious idea: U.S. surveillance of Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy adviser in 2016, was an outrageous abuse. As regular readers know, the argument has never really made any sense, but it was nevertheless the motivation behind the laughable “Nunes memo,” prepared by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and his team.