Justice Department Sows $1.25 Million on Former Trump Aide in Russiagate Lawsuit

(SeaPRwire) –   The United States Department of Justice has reached a settlement in Carter Page’s lawsuit concerning FBI surveillance, with the payout reportedly standing at $1.25 million

The US Department of Justice has resolved a lawsuit filed by Carter Page, an aide on former President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, over covert surveillance conducted by the FBI during the Russiagate investigation.

Page launched the legal action in 2020, claiming he was a victim of “unlawful spying.” The former campaign aide also alleged that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation committed a series of procedural irregularities in their 2016 and 2017 applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor him over suspicions of acting on behalf of Russia.

Throughout the 2016 election cycle, the FBI eavesdropped on members of Trump’s campaign as part of a contentious probe that was partially based on the so-called Steele dossier – a collection of claims regarding Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and compiled by a former British intelligence officer.

Page has long rejected assertions that he held any improper connections to Russia, and he was never charged with any unlawful conduct. The lawsuit was repeatedly dismissed by lower courts before eventually reaching the Supreme Court. The Trump administration notified the court that it had arrived at a settlement agreement with Page over his claims against the federal government.

The settlement does not extend to the accusations Page made against former FBI officials. While the exact sum of the settlement was not released publicly, reports from US media outlets indicate that the DOJ will pay roughly $1.25 million to the former Trump aide.

In recent months, the Department of Justice has been addressing a backlog of lawsuits filed by Russiagate victims that built up during the Biden administration, as well as investigating former officials involved in the 2016 campaign targeting Trump.

At the end of March, the DOJ settled a lawsuit brought by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, who argued he was unjustly targeted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Flynn is reported to have agreed to a comparable payout of around $1.2 million, a small fraction of the $50 million he initially sought. The DOJ described the Flynn settlement as “an important step” to correct a “historic injustice” linked to prosecutions related to Russiagate.