DOJ to pay $1.25 million to consultant Carter Page to settle his lawsuit over illegal eavesdropping during the Russia plot

The Justice Department agreed to pay $1.25 million to political consultant Carter Page, a former adviser to Donald Trump's campaign in 2016, to end the lawsuit he had filed over illegal eavesdropping he was subjected to during the "Russian plot."

The settlement was reported Wednesday to the Supreme Courtby Solicitor General D. John Sauer, The New York Times reported.

Page, who was never charged with any crime, had been the subject of four rounds of FISA court surveillance warrants between late 2016 and mid-2017. The FBI applications, as was shown years later, were riddled with errors, material omissions and manipulations designed to make him look more suspicious than he actually was, the NYT recalled.

The courts had rejected the earlier lawsuit

Page's original lawsuit, which claimed $75 million for violations of his constitutional rights, had been dismissed in 2022 by federal Judge Dabney Friedrich, an appointee of President Trump himself. In a 54-page ruling, Friedrich called Page's allegations "troubling," but held that he had sued the wrong people, namely the officials involved (James Comey, Peter Strzok, Kevin Clinesmith, among others) who had drafted or authorized the requests, but not materially executed the surveillance.

Following that defeat, Page appealed all the way to the Supreme Court. But before any ruling from the high court, the new DOJ, already under control of the Trump Administration, decided to close the case with a compensation that, although far from the 75 million initially requested, supposes an explicit recognition of the abuse committed by the intelligence apparatus against a US citizen.

Flynn, Babbitt, and now Page

The Page settlement is part of a series of redress for figures who were persecuted during the era of lawfare pushed against Trump's entourage. Last month, the DOJ closed with Michael Flynn on a $1.2 million settlement, ending a legal battle that kicked off with special prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation. Flynn, a retired general and former national security adviser, had withdrawn his guilty plea after learning of irregularities in the case. Also, last year, the federal government paid nearly $5 million to the estate of Ashli Babbitt, the protester shot and killed by a Capitol Hill officer during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots.

In every case, the Biden Administration had attempted to block or dismiss the lawsuits. It was the arrival of former Attorney General Pam Bondi at the helm of the DOJ that completely changed the course of these prosecutions. Following Bondi's departure, her former number two, Todd Blanche, was left as acting attorney general.