Going in, the FBI’s very best evidence in the whole Trump-Russia collusion theory was, supposedly, against a U.S. citizen they wiretapped over and over again — month after month — under both the Obama and Trump administrations.

But businessman Carter Page has yet to be charged with a crime.

ADVERTISEMENT

The implications are potentially dire.

Is Page an active Russian spy, being allowed to run loose and undermine our civilization for reasons unknown?

Or was the FBI’s judgment so poor that its top agents targeted an innocent man, violating his civil rights in the most intrusive way, stubbornly refusing to back off when the evidence wasn’t there?

Or were the FBI agents so incompetent — and Page so clever — that he spied right under their noses, but they were unable to find a shred of evidence while monitoring his communications and movements day in and day out?

Or was the FBI improperly using Page as their best shot at a secret window into a political campaign and a president they opposed?

Whatever Page’s relationship with the FBI, it’s complicated.

It’s a touchy issue: It turns out Russia had alerted the FBI in advance to one of the future bombers, a radical Muslim born in Kyrgyzstan named Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI interviewed Tsarnaev but mistakenly concluded there was no reason to be suspicious. Tsarnaev and his brother were left to carry out the bombing that killed three and injured or maimed several hundred.

The FBI wasn’t happy when it became public that the Russians had warned them — to no avail.