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The Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive a lawsuit brought by former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page challenging FBI surveillance conducted during the bureau’s investigation into alleged ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
The justices denied Page’s appeal, leaving lower court rulings in place and effectively ending his effort to hold former FBI Director James Comey and other former government officials personally liable for what he alleged was unlawful surveillance. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did not participate in the case.
Page, who served as a foreign policy advisor to Trump’s 2016 campaign, was the subject of secret surveillance warrants approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2016 and 2017 as part of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
He was never charged with a crime and has long denied allegations that he acted as an agent of Russia.
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Carter Page, Former Foreign-Policy adviser to Donald Trump during his 2016 Presidential Election Campaign visits “The David Webb Show” On SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 at SiriusXM Studios on January 14, 2020 in New York City. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
The case became one of the most controversial chapters of the Trump-Russia investigation after a Justice Department inspector general report identified significant errors and omissions in the FBI’s applications to surveil Page. Former FBI and Justice Department officials involved in approving the warrants later said they would not have signed off on the applications had they known the full extent of the problems identified by investigators.
Carter Page, former advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow, Russia, on Dec. 12, 2016.
In response to the watchdog findings, the FBI implemented dozens of corrective measures aimed at improving the accuracy and completeness of future surveillance applications.
Page sued Comey and other former officials, alleging they violated his constitutional rights by submitting flawed applications to obtain surveillance authority. Lower courts dismissed the case, finding, among other things, that Page had not sued the officials who directly carried out the surveillance.
Page recently reached a $1.25 million settlement with the federal government related to the surveillance claims but sought to continue pursuing claims against individual former officials.
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The Supreme Court offered no explanation for declining review, as is customary when turning away appeals.
The Supreme Court of the United States building is illuminated at night in Washington, D.C., showing the main entrance, the West Facade with the marble pediment, and the inscription “Equal Justice Under Law.” (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Getty Images)
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The decision marks the latest legal chapter stemming from the Russia investigation, which examined whether members of Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Moscow’s efforts to influence the election. Special counsel Robert Mueller ultimately concluded that Russia interfered in the election but did not establish that members of the Trump campaign criminally conspired with Russia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
