Former Trump Campaign Adviser Carter Page Sues Over FBI Surveillance

Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to President Trump’s 2016 campaign, has brought a $75 million lawsuit against the Department of Justice, the FBI, former FBI director James B. Comey, former Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, ex-bureau lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, form FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page (no relation). In his suit, Page alleges that he was illegally put under surveillance during the investigation into Russian tampering with the Presidential election of 2016 and that as a result, not only were his constitutional rights violated, but he received death and kidnapping threats, suffered economic losses, and had his reputation irreparably damaged.

Page was a former Moscow-based investment banker, who was a CIA informant from 2008 through 2013. During its investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, the FBI had wiretaps on Page from October 2016 for more than a year. The purpose of the wiretapping was to discover whether Page was a recruitment target of Russian intelligence.

In order to put Page under surveillance, the FBI had to get permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. In its application to that court, the FBI relied heavily upon statements in a dossier prepared by Christopher Steele, a former British spy. The dossier had been compiled at the behest of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

There were many issues with the four FBI applications to surveil Page, not the least of which was that the FBI failed to disclose that Steele’s primary source had contradicted information attributed to him by Steele. Further, the FBI presented information to FISA indicating that Page had not been a source for the CIA, when, in fact, he had been. Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty in August to falsifying an email so that it would show Page had not been a CIA source.

Page’s suit states, “Since not a single proven fact ever established complicity with Russia involving Dr. Page, there never was probable cause to seek or obtain the FISA Warrants targeting him on this basis.” The suit is largely a gleaning of the Department of Justice Inspector General report of 2019 that found errors in the wiretap applications.

This is not the only lawsuit brought by Page. He filed lawsuits against Yahoo’s parent company and Huffington Post for publishing “false and defamatory statements” about him and portraying him as a “traitor to America.” He also filed a case against the Democratic National Committee, but that suit was dismissed earlier in 2020.

The FBI has taken the issues with the FISA applications seriously, including the fact that there was a failure to vet the information they received from outside sources. Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who in 2019 investigated the origins of the 2016 Russia investigations, found that the FBI was justified in opening its probe after receiving a tip about George Papadopoulos, President Trump’s 2016 campaign adviser. But he also said that the bureau should have ended the Page investigation months earlier when they learned that accusations against the Trump campaign and its officials were not credible.

Horowitz noted that he found at least 17 errors in the FISA application. This number includes the omission of the information that may have refuted the suspicion that Page was a Russian agent. He noted “serious performance failures” on the part of the FBI’s chain of command.

Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, many officials who signed off on the Page warrant applications said they would not have done so had they known then the facts in evidence now. Mr. Comey called the warrant application “embarrassing” and “sloppy” when he appeared before the committee. Though McCabe also told the committee he would not have signed the warrant, he refused to take responsibility for the mistakes, saying, “I think that we are all responsible for the work that went into that FISA.”

Since the time of the FISA applications and the Inspector General’s subsequent investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray has initiated over 40 corrective measures to improve the accuracy of future FISA applications. The FBI officials involved in Page’s surveillance were barred from further appearances before the FISA court.

Page’ lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, November 27, 2020, states, “Dr. Page is entitled to relief for Defendants’ unjustified and illegal actions (including violations of federal criminal law), which violated federal statutes enacted to prevent unlawful spying on United States persons, as well as the Constitution.”

Page was never charged as a result of the Russia probe.