There isn’t much a private citizen can do when their own government works against them, but former Trump campaign aide Carter Page is going to try. Page is attempting to get his life back after the FBI spied on him as part of its baseless investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Page filed a lawsuit on Friday against the Justice Department, FBI, and several named individuals who helped obtain the FISA warrants to spy on Page that were based on unverified, salacious allegations in a dossier paid for by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
Page alleges in his lawsuit that FBI investigators violated “his Constitutional and other legal rights in connection with unlawful surveillance and investigation of him by the United States Government” and that he “was targeted because of his lawful association with the 2016 Presidential campaign of Donald Trump.”
Page is suing numerous individuals associated with the DOJ’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation into alleged Russian collusion, including ex-FBI director James Comey, ex-FBI agents Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and Kevin Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty to falsifying evidence against Page.
Clinesmith altered an email from the CIA acknowledging that Page previously had provided the agency information. Clinesmith’s alterations made it appear as if Page was not a previous CIA asset, making his Russian interactions seem inappropriate.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, the FBI included 17 “inaccuracies and omissions” in order to obtain four FISA warrants against Page, including the omission of evidence that Page had previously worked with the CIA. An Inspector General review of other FISA warrants found few, if any, similar inaccuracies and omissions.
“The FBI did not have probable cause to lawfully obtain a FISA warrant. Instead, the FBI used documents furnished by Christopher Steele, a Confidential Human Source (‘CHS’). As the Crossfire Hurricane team knew, CHS Steele 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,” Page alleges in his lawsuit.
Page further alleges the FBI disregarded its own procedures in order to spy on Page, including Rule 13a, which “requires the government to immediately correct any misstatement or omission of material fact in a warrant application,” the lawsuit states. The FBI, according to Page, knowingly included incorrect information, even after the bureau became aware of the inaccuracies.
The crux of the lawsuit is that the FBI relied on unverified information from a single source and relentlessly pursued Page despite evidence contradicting their theory against him. The FBI even broke numerous procedures in order to continue pursuing Page, procedures that, if followed, would have stopped them from ever obtaining FISA warrants to spy on Page in the first place.
Due to the professional, reputational, and emotional harm caused to Page by the FBI’s actions, Page, a former Navy Officer, is requesting at least $75 million in damages.