Carter Page was thrust into the media spotlight last year after reports surfaced about his contacts with Russian officials during his time as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. | Pavel Golokiv/AP Former Trump adviser Page files court brief against the AT&T-Time Warner merger

The Justice Department lawsuit to block the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger has an unexpected fan: former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.

Page, who is not a lawyer, filed a proposed friend-of-the-court brief Tuesday arguing that consolidation between telecommunications and media companies "encourages extreme levels of journalistic recklessness and impropriety because it allocates considerable resources to the media outlets under their control."


Page, separately, has filed a libel suit against Verizon's Oath, which owns Yahoo News and HuffPost, claiming Yahoo News defamed him when it wrote about his alleged contacts with Russians accused of meddling in the 2016 election.

In Tuesday's filing, Page asserted that the proposed AT&T-Time Warner union would further the "telecommunications-media oligopoly" that he claims ensnared him during the 2016 presidential campaign.

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He also contends that owners of these "overly enabled media outlets" can "conspire with their favored political actors to exclude contrarian perspectives" in a manner that is harmful to American democratic principles such as the First Amendment.

AT&T's $85 billion purchase of Time Warner would give the telecommunications giant ownership of Turner Broadcasting, a collection of networks that includes CNN.

DOJ and AT&T declined to comment on the filing.

The Justice Department, AT&T and Time Warner didn't ask Page to weigh in on their dispute, he told POLITICO via email. He also said he hasn't spoken with members of Trump administration about the merger or any other issue since inauguration day.

"I have always had an interest in the law, but the abuses I’ve suffered over the past year or so have brought a range of fundamental legal issues and our Constitution into sharp focus for me," Page told POLITICO. "For the reasons alluded to in my amicus, I believe my firsthand personal experiences and perspectives can be helpful to the forthcoming proceedings."

Page was thrust into the media spotlight last year after reports surfaced about his contacts with Russian officials during his time as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. Several federal law enforcement agencies have investigated his contacts with Russian officials. Page has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, though he has at times made contradictory statements about whether he met with Russian officials and when those meetings occurred.

The legal brief starts on an unusually personal note as Page writes that during his time as a ”junior, unpaid, informal advisor” to the Trump campaign he was “effectively blocked” from making “any supportive contribution as a private citizen during this American democratic process.” He also writes that he was “illicitly hacked” in 2016, citing a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty story about the FBI reportedly monitoring his communications.

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Page, 46, is not an attorney, though he has said he is seeking a Master of Laws degree. Amicus briefs are typically written by people with legal training. He also has not retained a lawyer in his dealings with House committees investigating his interactions with Russian officials during last year’s campaign.

Page's primary example of what he sees as problematic media consolidation is Verizon's purchase of Yahoo and the Huffington Post, which are now part of a subsidiary called Oath. He is suing Oath and the Broadcasting Board of Governors over the 2016 Yahoo News story, which was subsequently shared by U.S.-controlled Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Page contends in Tuesday's filing that Yahoo News was imprudent in publishing its report and that the federal government was complicit in spreading those allegations.

"The collaborative role that the U.S. telecommunications-media oligopoly played in this debacle inflicted against American democracy in 2016 further underscores the structural inequality of the current system which is at risk of only becoming more egregious if the proposed AT&T transaction is approved," Page wrote.

President Donald Trump has voiced his own misgivings about the AT&T-Time Warner merger concentrating too much power in the hands of a single company, and he frequently rails against CNN for coverage he considers biased or inaccurate. Last month after the DOJ filed its lawsuit, Trump told reporters outside the White House that the deal was "not good for the country."