What I don’t get is how authorization to surveille Page would be expected to yield anything. It was improper. Misdeeds should be punished and procedures tightened. But Whatever might have been going on with Trump and his chief associates, it would not come up in communications involving Page. He was a transient minor figure in the campaign. The underlying premise is that permission to watch this small fish opened the floodgates to directly gathering Trump’s communications, but I don’t see it.
Lie small in this case to make the request seem like it had no consequences. Get the rubber stamp, then grow it.