Former FBI Director James Comey and others involved in the allegedly unlawful surveillance of a Trump campaign staffer in 2016 just got some bad news.
Former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser and Navy veteran Carter Page spoke with Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday after his lawyers filed a $75 million lawsuit against Comey, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the FBI for what they called “unlawful surveillance and investigation of [Page] by the United States Government.”
“I think it’s going to be a very long battle ahead but I think one that’s going to be extremely important for where our country needs to go,” Page said Sunday, according to Fox News.
According to Fox, Page also said he has “a very strong case put together,” but conceded that “there is a lot more that needs to be uncovered.”
“A very long battle ahead”
In their complaint, Page’s lawyers said the “case is about holding accountable the entities and individuals who are responsible for the most egregious violation and abuse of the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] statute since it was enacted over 40 years ago,” Fox reported.
Though many voiced suspicions that Page was acting as an agent for the Russian government, Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team found no evidence to back those claims after a months-long investigation.
“The investigation did not establish that Page coordinated with the Russian government in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election,” Mueller’s final report stated, according to the Associated Press. Page never faced any charges, the AP noted.
Trump lauds the “good news”
Adding salt to the wounds, a report issued subsequently by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found serious shortcomings in how the FBI had obtained its original FISA warrant to spy on Page.
Specifically, Horowitz said the FBI did not disclose on its application for the warrant the fact that Page had provided the CIA with details concerning his business history with Russian officials, as The Intercept reported.
In fact, FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith went so far as to alter an email to remove a reference to the fact that Page had been a CIA source from 2008 until 2013, the Associated Press reported. According to the AP, Clinesmith pleaded guilty to that wrongdoing in August of this year.
“Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email,” his attorney said at the time, according to Fox News. “It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility.”
Page’s lawsuit, for its part, also came up during President Donald Trump’s own interview on Fox on Sunday. Speaking with Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo, Trump called his former aide’s suit “good news,” The Sun reported.
The post Carter Page files M lawsuit against James Comey, DOJ: 'Justice needs to be restored' first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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