Carter Page settlement
- The Trump administration agreed to a $1.25 million settlement with former adviser Carter Page. (cbsnews.com) - The payout resolves claims tied to four FISA warrants used to surveil Page during the 2016 campaign. (cbsnews.com) - The settlement closes a chapter in litigation over surveillance practices that fed political controversy about 2016 investigations. (cbsnews.com)
The Justice Department has agreed to pay Carter Page $1.25 million to settle his lawsuit over secret surveillance during the 2016 Trump campaign. (cbsnews.com) The deal was disclosed in a Supreme Court filing this week while Page was appealing lower-court rulings that had thrown out much of his case. The filing said the government and Page had “agreed to settle” his claims against the United States. (cbsnews.com) Page had sued in 2020, saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department used four flawed warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor him from October 2016 into 2017. He also sued eight current or former officials. (abcnews.com) The settlement covers Page’s claims against the federal government, not the separate claims he brought against individual former officials. Politico reported those personal-capacity claims could still continue. (abcnews.com) (politico.com) The case reaches back to one of the most disputed parts of the Russia investigation: whether the government had a lawful basis to keep wiretapping a Trump campaign adviser. Page denied being an agent of Russia and was never charged with a crime. (apnews.com) (wsbtv.com) A 2019 inspector general report found 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page surveillance applications, but it also said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had an authorized basis to open the broader Crossfire Hurricane investigation and found no documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias drove that decision. (pbs.org) (usatoday.com) In January 2020, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said the applications contained material misstatements and omissions. The court later said the last two Page warrants were not valid. (fisc.uscourts.gov) (grassley.senate.gov) Attorney General Pam Bondi said the settlement was part of an effort to address what she called “weaponization of government.” Critics of that framing have long pointed to the inspector general’s finding that the Russia inquiry itself was properly opened even as the Page surveillance applications were deeply flawed. (cbsnews.com) (pbs.org) The payment closes the government’s side of a lawsuit that outlasted the Russia investigation, the inspector general review and multiple appeals. Nearly a decade after the first warrant, the legal fight over how Carter Page was surveilled is ending with a cash settlement instead of a Supreme Court ruling. (cbsnews.com) (politico.com)
