Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page filed a $75 million lawsuit against the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday.
Page was the target of a secret surveillance warrant during the FBI Russia probe. He said he has been targeted because of his work with President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In his lawsuit against the federal agencies, Page is seeking relief for “multiple violations” of his “Constitutional and other legal rights in connection with unlawful surveillance and investigation of him by the United States Government.”
He claimed a series of errors made by FBI and DOJ officials in applications they forwarded in 2016 and 2017 to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to eavesdrop on him. Federal law enforcement authorities suspected him as an agent of the Russian government.
“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 lawsuit states.
FISA stands for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a federal law that prescribes procedures for requesting judicial authorization for electronic surveillance and physical search of persons engaged in espionage or international terrorism against the United States on behalf of a foreign power.
Ari Fleischer, former White House Press Secretary during the term of President George W. Bush, expressed hope that Page will win his case.
In a tweet, he said “Good luck to Carter Page. I hope he wins his case, and that all those in the Obama/Biden Administration who did this to him apologize. And maybe one day the press will ask Biden about this.”
Good luck to Carter Page. I hope he wins his case, and that all those in the Obama/Biden Administration who did this to him apologize. And maybe one day the press will ask Biden about this. https://t.co/rqpowrUSLM
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) November 28, 2020
The DOJ earlier stated that it had “insufficient” cause to resume their wiretaps of Page, which was a part of their probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Justice Department also ruled that at least two of the four warrants used to search Page lacked “probable cause” to back the claims that Page was indeed working as a Russian agent.
In the lawsuit, Page accused the FBI of counting on documents from Christopher Steele, a former British spy.
The lawsuit stated that the FBI has relied on Steele despite knowing he “had been paid by the Democratic Party and/or the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign to perform ‘political opposition research’ and dig up dirt on a connection between the Trump campaign and Russia in order to divert attention from the investigation of Clinton’s email practices while she was Secretary of State.”
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