The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Carter Page’s attempt to revive his lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and seven other former FBI officials, leaving his individual claims over FBI surveillance warrants out of court.
The justices’ move effectively ends Page’s latest bid to reopen a fight over warrant applications used during the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Those applications sought permission from a judge to surveil him, and a later Justice Department watchdog review found that they were faulty.
Page had sued the officials as individuals, accusing them of violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. His claims against the federal government were recently settled by the Trump administration, leaving only the allegations against Comey and the others in the Supreme Court appeal.
A federal judge had already ruled that Page waited too long to file the case, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld that decision. Monday’s rejection leaves that timing ruling intact and keeps the lawsuit from moving forward against the former officials.
The Justice Department has said the surveillance relied on flawed and uncorroborated information. In a statement, a department spokesman said, “No American should ever face covert and unlawful surveillance based on their political view,” and added that 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.”
Comey’s lawyer, David N. Kelley, declined to comment after the settlement was disclosed in a Supreme Court filing in April. For Page, the ruling leaves no live claim in the nation’s highest court and no clear path in this lawsuit after years of lower-court losses.
