Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser who the Russians deemed too stupid to make an effective spy, has been gripped with self-pity. In the early days of the Mueller investigation, Page seemed inexplicably worry-free, his beaming mug bouncing around cable-news sets with such alarming regularity that MSNBC host Chris Hayes attempted an on-air intervention. “I genuinely hope, Carter, that you are innocent of everything, because you are doing a lot of talking,” he said, referring to the F.B.I.’s interest in Carter’s contacts with Russians, and to Carter’s apparent disinterest in retaining legal representation. “It’s either admirably bold or reckless, but I guess we’ll find out.”

In recent days, however, as Robert Mueller leaves him to twist, Page seems to have grown morose, often theatrically so, comparing his ignominy to that of Monica Lewinsky, and his “torture” to that of John McCain. In one tweet he even seemed to compare his public torment to that of Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. “Now Senate Intel Committee has questions about sleep deprivation, confinement boxes and other advanced interrogation techniques?” he groused Monday on Twitter, as lawmakers prepared to question torture queen Gina Haspel about her role in the C.I.A.’s post-9/11 torture programs, including her management of a C.I.A. black site in Thailand where Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were tortured. “They should consider their own Witch Hunt tactics before harassing others this week,” he added, turning the subject back to himself. “I would’ve much preferred waterboarding to their past torture.”

Of course, the agonies of Carter Page are social as well as physical. When former White House intern Monica Lewinsky excoriated Town & Country magazine for uninviting her from an event because Bill Clinton decided to attend, Carter recognized himself in her indignity. “Stay strong @MonicaLewinsky,” he wrote in a series of tweets. “At least when their [private]-Investigators gave you the ‘Impugn character and veracity until destroyed’ treatment, they refrained from abusing process in Secret Society court! Wiretap leaks limit party invites too.”

Indeed, as Page frequently reminds his small clique of followers online, he was surveilled by the F.B.I. after federal prosecutors secured a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court—a matter that has made him a minor cause célèbre on the far right. Page and his supporters contend that the warrant was secured illegally; that he was scurrilously defamed by his inclusion in the infamous Trump-Russia dossier compiled by Christopher Steele; that the F.B.I. was out to get Donald Trump; and that he, Page, was made to be collateral damage in this vast and terrifying abuse of power.

On Friday, he made sure to remind Cindy McCain of that fact, as her husband, Senator John McCain, is dying of brain cancer. Most of Washington had been appalled, on Thursday, when news broke that White House staffer Kelly Sadler had quipped that McCain, who recently opposed the administration’s nomination of Haspel for C.I.A. director, was “dying anyway.” Cindy McCain wrote on Twitter that Sadler should remember that the senator, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, “has a family, 7 children and 5 grandchildren.” Page, naturally, was compelled to weigh in. “May I remind @cindymccain and the reckless Dodgy Dossier wavers: Many of the people defamed, harassed and often tortured thanks to peddlers of that big-$/£, politically-motivated hack job have families too.”