Carter Page Appeal Rejected: Supreme Court Ends James Comey Lawsuit | Faiyyaz

CBS News' full breakdown of the Supreme Court's order and what it means for FISA accountability:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Supreme+Court+rejects+Carter+Page+lawsuit+Comey+2026

The US Supreme Court declined to hear Carter Page's appeal on June 15, 2026, refusing to revive his lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and seven other former FBI officials. The Court offered no explanation, as is standard. The rejection leaves in place a lower court ruling that Page filed his lawsuit outside the three-year statute of limitations. Page had already secured a $1.25 million settlement from the federal government in April 2026. His claims against individual officials are now permanently closed.

The order appeared on the Court's order list on the morning of June 15, 2026 - unsigned, uncommented, and final. It takes four justices to agree to hear a case. Not a single justice noted any objection. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did not participate, having been assigned to the case during her earlier tenure as a district court judge. The decision was not a ruling on the merits. The Supreme Court did not say Comey was right. It did not say Page was wrong. It said: this case will not be heard here. Page's lawyers had argued the FBI 'fabricated information' to obtain four surveillance warrants under FISA, then leaked details to the press. The Court's answer was silence - which in legal terms means no.

Carter Page is a 55-year-old naval officer, energy consultant, and foreign policy analyst with a Naval Academy degree, an NYU MBA, and a doctorate from the University of London. He served as an informal, unpaid foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and left in September 2016. He was never charged with a crime. Not during the investigation. Not after. Not ever. The Mueller investigation did not charge him. No grand jury indicted him. He has consistently denied any improper relationship with Russia, saying his contacts were known to US intelligence and that he had cooperated with the CIA as a source. That last point matters - an FBI lawyer actually falsified an email to conceal it from the surveillance court.

Crossfire Hurricane was the FBI's code name for its investigation into potential coordination between members of the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government. It was opened on July 31, 2016 - four days after the DNC announced Russian hackers had breached its servers. It looked at four individuals: Carter Page, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, and Michael Flynn. Carter Page was the only one to be surveilled using a FISA warrant. The investigation was later absorbed into Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe, which concluded in March 2019 finding no evidence of criminal conspiracy. Crossfire Hurricane was run under then-FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Starting in October 2016, the FBI obtained four sequential FISA warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing secret surveillance of Carter Page. To obtain one, the FBI must demonstrate probable cause that the target is an agent of a foreign power. There is no defense attorney, no adversarial process. The FBI used four warrants from October 2016 through September 2017 - nearly a year of surveillance on a person never charged. In December 2019, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz documented at least 17 significant errors and omissions in those applications. Key issues: heavy reliance on the unverified Steele dossier funded by the DNC and Clinton campaign; failure to disclose Page's history as a CIA source; FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith falsifying an email to make it appear Page had not been a source. Clinesmith later pleaded guilty to making a false statement and was disbarred.

Page filed in November 2020, six years after surveillance began. The lawsuit named James Comey and seven other former FBI officials as individual defendants. Page also sued the DOJ and FBI as institutions. He originally sought damages of no less than $75 million. A federal district court dismissed individual claims as filed outside the three-year statute of limitations. The DC Circuit upheld that dismissal in May 2025. In April 2026, the DOJ settled Page's PATRIOT Act claims for $1.25 million from the Treasury's Judgment Fund. The Supreme Court declined to review the remaining claims on June 15, 2026. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson did not participate due to prior involvement as a district court judge.

James Comey - FBI Director 2013-May 2017; approved early stages of Crossfire Hurricane and signed off on the initial FISA warrant. Andrew McCabe - FBI Deputy Director under Comey; co-ran Crossfire Hurricane. Peter Strzok - FBI counterintelligence agent and lead investigator. Lisa Page - FBI lawyer assigned to the investigation. Kevin Clinesmith - FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty in 2020 to falsifying a CIA email; the only criminal conviction directly from Crossfire Hurricane. Joe Pientka, Stephen Somma, and Brian Auten - FBI agents involved in the FISA warrant process; the IG identified Somma as making significant errors.

In April 2026, the DOJ announced a $1.25 million settlement with Carter Page resolving his PATRIOT Act claims against the US government. The payment came from the Treasury's Judgment Fund. A DOJ spokesman's statement was unusually pointed: 'No American should ever face covert and unlawful surveillance based on their political view. The investigation into Carter Page - a man never charged with a single crime - relied on inherently flawed and uncorroborated information, proving it was a political sham from the get-go.' But the settlement only covered PATRIOT Act claims against the government as an institution. It did not cover FISA-based claims or claims against individuals like Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Lisa Page, or Clinesmith. Those individual claims were what the Supreme Court rejected on June 15.

Page lost not because courts found the surveillance lawful, but because courts found he filed too late. The three-year statute of limitations is standard for civil rights claims under the Bivens doctrine. Page argued the clock should have started in December 2019 when the IG report documented the FISA flaws. He sued in November 2020 - within three years of the IG report. Courts at every level rejected this. The DC Circuit concluded the clock started in April 2017, when the Post and Times both reported the FBI had obtained a FISA warrant on Page. Three years from April 2017 is April 2020 - Page sued more than six months late under this reading. One DC Circuit judge dissented in part, writing the record was 'far more troubling' than the majority described.

The Carter Page surveillance story is not only about Carter Page. FISA warrants are issued by a secret court. The government presents its case without any opposing counsel. The targets are typically not told they are being watched until after the fact, if ever. The IG report found 17 significant errors in four sequential warrant applications. The court renewing those warrants each time saw only what the FBI chose to show it. Page had no way to know what was being said about him, no way to challenge it, no way to confront accusers. By the time the IG report came out in 2019, the surveillance was long over - but the damage to his reputation, career, and ability to work in finance and public life was already done. The settlement of $1.25 million acknowledged that damage. The Supreme Court's ruling confirmed individuals responsible face no personal legal consequences. The government pays; the officials do not.