The Supreme Court on Monday in Washington refused to revive ex-Trump campaign aide Carter Page's lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and other officials over surveillance warrants obtained during the Russia investigation.
Page settled with the U.S. for $1.25 million in April; the settlement covered only his claims against the federal government and pertained only to a claim he raised under the PATRIOT Act, not claims alleging violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or claims against individual FBI officials.
Page filed his lawsuit in November 2020, alleging the warrant applications were false and misleading; U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich dismissed the case in 2022 and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed that decision in 2024, with the D.C. Circuit ruling that the statute of limitations barred his assertions.
The Justice Department's internal watchdog found the FBI made 17 "significant errors and omissions" in its initial 2016 application and the three renewal requests, criticized the bureau's reliance on opposition research memos prepared by Christopher Steele that contained salacious and unproven allegations about then-candidate Trump, and the FBI later acknowledged it should have ended its surveillance of Page earlier.
Lower courts tossed out his lawsuit in part because he had not sued the people who carried out the surveillance, the Supreme Court's brief order did not detail its reasoning, Page vigorously denied any claim of improper ties to Russia and was never charged with any wrongdoing, and the FBI has said it initiated more than 40 corrective steps aimed at improving the accuracy and thoroughness of applications.
An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that Russia had interfered on Trump's behalf during the 2016 campaign and that the campaign welcomed the assistance, and Mueller's team said it did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Russia.
Page's April settlement came the month after a roughly $1.2 million settlement with Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations with a top Russian diplomat and was later pardoned.