Supreme Court Dumps Trump Aide Carter Page's Wiretapping Suit Against James Comey
A six-year legal battle over FBI surveillance during the 2016 Russia investigation has officially come to an end, after the nation's highest court refused to revive Page's case against the former FBI director.
Supreme Court Declines to Hear the Case
The Supreme Court's order on Monday rejected former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page's attempt to revive a lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and several other bureau officials over their roles in the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is typical when the Court denies a petition for review.
The decision means the rulings of lower federal courts remain in place. Both a federal district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had previously thrown out Page's lawsuit on procedural grounds, finding that he waited too long to file his claims against the individual FBI officials he named.
The Origins of the Case: FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" Probe
Carter Page served as a foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. Due to his prior business ties and contacts with Russian government figures, FBI investigators sought permission to monitor him as part of their broader "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Investigators obtained four separate warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) between 2016 and 2017, allowing them to wiretap Page's phone calls and emails. He was never charged with any crime in connection with the investigation.
A Justice Department inspector general report later uncovered what it described as significant errors and omissions in the warrant applications, many of which leaned heavily on the discredited Steele dossier. Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who was also named in Page's lawsuit, pleaded guilty in 2020 to altering an email used to help secure one of the warrants.
Why the Lawsuit Was Thrown Out: The Statute of Limitations
Page filed his lawsuit against Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and several other named officials in November 2020 — more than three years after he became aware of the surveillance in April 2017. Courts ruled that this timeline ran afoul of the three-year statute of limitations that applies to such claims.
Page had argued that the clock should instead have started ticking in 2019, when the inspector general's report was publicly released, since that was when the full extent of the alleged misconduct became known. He warned that the appeals court's interpretation created what he called a "Catch-22," where similar claims would always be dismissed either as too speculative to file early, or as time-barred if filed later.
A Partial Win Already Secured: The $1.25 Million Settlement
While the Supreme Court's refusal closes the door on Page's claims against individual FBI officials, he had already secured a measure of compensation earlier this year. In April, the Trump administration agreed to pay Page $1.25 million to settle a separate set of claims he brought against the federal government itself — the FBI and the Department of Justice as institutions, rather than individual employees.
As part of that settlement, the Justice Department issued a statement asserting that the investigation into Page had relied on flawed and uncorroborated information. That earlier settlement, however, did not resolve the portion of his lawsuit targeting officials in their personal capacity, which is the part the Supreme Court declined to revive on Monday.
Timeline: Carter Page's Six-Year Legal Battle
–17
2020
–25
2026
16
Reaction From the Justice Department and Trump's Camp
A Justice Department spokesman framed the underlying investigation as politically motivated, stating that the probe into Page relied on inherently flawed and uncorroborated information. President Trump has long described the broader Russia investigation as a "hoax" and repeatedly defended Page, accusing the FBI of targeting him for political reasons during the 2016 campaign.
Comey's attorneys had separately sought to file amicus briefs in support of their client during the appeal process, though a judge denied that request, according to court filings.
What This Means Going Forward
With the Supreme Court's decision, Carter Page's six-year campaign to hold individual FBI officials personally liable for the surveillance he faced has come to a definitive end. The case will be remembered as one of the lasting legal threads stemming from the 2016 Russia investigation, alongside Clinesmith's guilty plea and the broader inspector general findings that reshaped public understanding of how the FISA warrants against Page were obtained.
For now, Page leaves the legal battle with the $1.25 million settlement from the federal government, but without the personal accountability finding he sought against Comey and the other named officials.
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