DOJ Settles Surveillance Abuse Lawsuit With Former Trump Campaign Adviser Carter Page

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

The Department of Justice told the U.S. Supreme Court on April 22 that it has settled a lawsuit filed by former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page over alleged surveillance abuses.

Page had served as a foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

He sued several top federal law enforcement officials, alleging his constitutional rights were violated through illegal surveillance carried out under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as part of an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The settlement moots, or makes legally irrelevant, Page’s lawsuit against the federal government, U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in a new brief filed with the nation’s highest court.

Page had filed a petition with the Supreme Court in December 2025 to appeal a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruling that affirmed dismissal of the lawsuit by a lower court.

The appeals court ruled that he had waited too long to initiate his lawsuit.

Page is a longtime contributor to the United States’ national security efforts as an “operational contact” of the Central Intelligence Agency. Despite his years of service, he was a target in the FBI’s investigation known as Operation Crossfire Hurricane that probed suspected Russian influence on Trump’s 2016 campaign. He has denied having any improper ties to Russia and was not charged with wrongdoing, according to the petition.

“Through deliberate lies and incomplete factual assertions, the FBI convinced the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) that there was probable cause to believe that Dr. Page was an intermediary between Russia and Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign’s chair,” he said in the petition.

The FBI filed for four Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants to surveil Page and the court granted all four. Before the final renewal application was filed, two members of the operation conspired to leak information from the secret FBI surveillance of Page to the media to damage his public image and the Trump campaign. Anonymously sourced media reports falsely insinuated that Page was an agent of Russia, according to the petition.

Because Page knew he wasn’t a Russian agent, he inferred from the media reports that he had been unlawfully surveilled and shared his belief with Congress and the public, according to his petition. However, foreign intelligence investigations are carried out in secret, so his suspicions could not be verified no matter what steps he took.

In late 2019, the Office of the Inspector General published a report spelling out “the FBI’s repeated and thorough surveillance abuses against Dr. Page,” stating that the first warrant application contained “seven significant inaccuracies and omissions.” The FBI also excluded information exonerating Page from warrant applications, including statements by Page “that were inconsistent with its theory” that “Page was an agent of Russia.” The office also “identified 10 additional significant errors in the renewal applications,” the petition said.

A Justice Department spokesperson commented on the settlement.

“No American should ever face covert and unlawful surveillance based on their political views,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times.

“The investigation into Carter Page—a man never charged with a single crime—relied on inherently flawed and uncorroborated information, proving it was a political sham from the get-go. The targeting of American citizens for political purposes constitutes a severe violation of civil liberties,” the spokesperson continued.

“This Department of Justice is committed to dismantling the weaponization of government and today’s settlement represents one of many initiatives to provide justice to those abused by rogue actors.”

The Epoch Times reached out for comment to Page’s attorney, Gene Schaerr of Schaerr Jaffe in Washington. No reply was received by publication time.