WASHINGTON: The United States Department of Justice has agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle a lawsuit filed by former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, who claimed he was subjected to unlawful surveillance during the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The case centred on the actions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which had obtained secret warrants to monitor Page as part of a broader inquiry into potential links between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.
Page filed the lawsuit in 2020, alleging that he had been improperly targeted through flawed surveillance applications submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
According to the complaint, officials from both the FBI and the US Department of Justice made serious omissions and errors in their warrant requests in 2016 and 2017.
These applications were used to justify monitoring Page on suspicion that he was acting as an agent of Russia—an accusation he has consistently denied. He was never charged with any offence.
According to AP, the settlement was disclosed in a filing to the Supreme Court of the United States, where Page had appealed after lower courts dismissed his lawsuit, ruling that it had been filed too late.
While the court filing did not specify the financial terms, a person familiar with the matter confirmed that the agreement amounts to $1.25 million.
The resolution applies only to Page’s claims against the federal government and does not include separate allegations he had made against former FBI officials, whom he also sued individually.
Page’s legal action followed a highly critical report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, which identified significant flaws in the FBI’s surveillance applications.
The report highlighted inaccuracies and omissions that undermined the credibility of the warrants used to monitor Page.
In response to the findings, former senior officials within the FBI and Justice Department acknowledged that they would not have approved the surveillance requests had they been aware of the full extent of the issues.
The FBI has since implemented more than 40 corrective measures aimed at improving the accuracy, oversight, and integrity of future surveillance applications.
Despite the controversy surrounding Page’s monitoring, investigators have emphasised that his case represented only a small part of the wider inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
That broader investigation was led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose final report concluded that Russia had interfered in the election in a manner that benefited Donald Trump’s campaign.
However, Mueller’s team stated that there was insufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Russian actors.
The Justice Department has recently resolved other legal claims related to the Russia investigation. In March, it reached a separate settlement worth approximately $1.2 million with Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with a Russian diplomat before later receiving a presidential pardon.
The settlement with Page marks another chapter in the legal aftermath of the politically charged Russia probe, which continues to generate scrutiny over the conduct of US law enforcement and intelligence agencies during one of the most contentious investigations in recent American history.
