Trump-appointed federal judge calls allegations “troubling,” but no grounds for civil suit.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Trump 2016 presidential campaign adviser Carter Page over surveillance he faced due to suspicions he was part of an effort by Russia to influence the U.S. political process.
U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich issued a ruling Thursday tossing out the $75 million suit Page filed in 2020 against eight current and former FBI officials as well as that law enforcement agency and the Justice Department.
Among the defendants in the case are former FBI Director James Comey and former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith. Clinesmith pleaded guilty in 2020 to making a false statement in an email to a colleague as they were preparing material to file with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in connection with scrutiny of the energy analyst shortly after he served as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.
While Friedrich largely turned aside arguments that Page waited too long to file his suit, she said Congress has not permitted lawsuits against government employees or federal agencies in a scenario like the one Page faced. And she declined to find that Page had a right to pursue a freestanding claim of violation of his constitutional rights.
A report issued in 2019 by the Justice Department’s inspector general found that the first request to surveil Page contained “seven significant inaccuracies and omissions,” including the misstatement to which Clinesmith pleaded guilty. The judge, a Trump appointee based in Washington, said the claims of misconduct and knowing falsehoods in the process of surveilling Page were “troubling.” However, she said they simply didn’t meet the standards for a civil suit.
“To the extent these allegations are true, there is little question that many individual defendants, as well as the agency as a whole, engaged in wrongdoing,” Friedrich wrote in a 54-page ruling issued one day after she held a hearing on Page’s suit. “Even so, Page has brought no actionable claim against any individual defendant or against the United States.”
……..
- Discussion
-
A judge tossed a lawsuit from former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page over surveillance he faced due to suspicions he was part of an effort by Russia to influence the U.S. political process https://t.co/iHm4aJP11P
— POLITICO (@politico) September 1, 2022
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.