What Is the Carter Page Lawsuit?
The Carter Page lawsuit is a federal civil case in which the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser sued former FBI Director James Comey and seven other former FBI and Justice Department officials over his surveillance during the 2016 Russia investigation, not a class action or multidistrict litigation. There is one plaintiff, Page, and eight named individual defendants, plus the FBI and Justice Department as institutional defendants in an earlier version of the case.
Page filed the case, formally styled Page v. Comey, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on November 27, 2020, under case number 1:20-cv-03460, assigned to Judge Dabney L. Friedrich. His complaint pled eight causes of action, including claims under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Patriot Act, the Privacy Act, and a Bivens constitutional claim against the individual officials.
Judge Friedrich dismissed the suit on September 1, 2022, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit affirmed that dismissal on statute-of-limitations grounds on May 23, 2025. The Supreme Court declined to review the case on June 15, 2026, closing it for good against the individual defendants, after the federal government had already separately settled Page's claims against it for $1.25 million.
“The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.”
Source: Page v. Comey, No. 25-705, Order List (U.S. June 15, 2026)
Why Was the Carter Page Lawsuit Filed?
The Carter Page lawsuit was filed because Page alleged that the FBI obtained four successive FISA warrants to wiretap him during the 2016 presidential campaign without adequate probable cause, relying heavily on a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele that the bureau's own inspector general later found was uncorroborated in key respects.
A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report, led by Inspector General Michael Horowitz, identified at least 17 errors and omissions across the FISA applications targeting Page, including a failure to disclose that Steele's own primary source had contradicted information attributed to him, and a misrepresentation of Page's earlier relationship with the CIA. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty in August 2020 to altering an email used to help renew one of the warrants, understating Page's past CIA contact.
Page's complaint alleged that the resulting public disclosure of his surveillance, and leaks of related information to reporters, violated his constitutional rights, damaged his reputation, and cost him business opportunities, even though he was never charged with a crime in connection with the Russia investigation. Comey and the other named officials denied the allegations, and Comey separately told the Senate Judiciary Committee the warrant applications had been "embarrassing" and "sloppy."
What Harms Does the Carter Page Lawsuit Allege?
The Carter Page lawsuit's complaint pled eight causes of action, grouped below into four categories of legal claim. Courts dismissed every one of them before trial, on legal grounds rather than a ruling on whether the FISA applications were actually accurate, so no court ever decided the merits of Page's underlying factual allegations.
Unlawful FISA Surveillance
A FISA surveillance claim alleges that the government obtained a wiretap warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act without the probable cause the statute requires.
Page alleged the FBI lacked probable cause for the four surveillance warrants targeting him between October 2016 and 2017, pointing to the Justice Department inspector general's finding of at least 17 errors and omissions in the applications. The district court found this claim, along with a related claim over unlawful disclosure of the surveillance results, was filed too late under FISA's statute of limitations.
Bivens Constitutional Claims
A Bivens claim is a federal legal theory allowing a person to sue individual government officials directly for money damages over an alleged violation of their constitutional rights.
Page brought Bivens claims against Comey and the other named officials personally, arguing the surveillance and its disclosure violated his constitutional rights. Judge Friedrich ruled that Congress has not authorized this type of personal-capacity lawsuit against federal officials in this context, an independent legal bar that applied regardless of the timeliness question.
Federal Tort Claims Act and Patriot Act Claims
The Federal Tort Claims Act and a Patriot Act damages provision are the specific federal statutes that allow a person to sue the United States government itself, rather than individual officials, for certain kinds of misconduct.
Page separately pursued claims against the federal government itself, rather than the named individuals, under the Federal Tort Claims Act and a Patriot Act damages provision covering unlawful government surveillance. These government-facing claims were the ones resolved by the $1.25 million settlement in April 2026, distinct from the individual-capacity claims against Comey and the others that continued on to the Supreme Court.
Privacy Act Claims
A Privacy Act claim alleges that a federal agency unlawfully disclosed protected personal records it held about someone.
Page also alleged Privacy Act violations tied to the disclosure of information related to his surveillance. As with his other claims against the named officials, the courts did not reach whether any disclosure actually violated the statute, dismissing the claim on procedural and statute-of-limitations grounds instead.
What Is the Current Status of the Carter Page Lawsuit?
The current status of the Carter Page lawsuit is closed. The Supreme Court denied Page's petition for certiorari on June 15, 2026, leaving in place the lower courts' dismissal of his claims against Comey and the other named former officials, and no further appeal is available.
Page v. Comey
Carter Page filed his original complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on November 27, 2020. Judge Dabney L. Friedrich dismissed the case on September 1, 2022, finding that, even if Page's allegations were true, the law did not allow the type of personal-capacity claims he brought against the named officials, and calling the underlying allegations of misconduct "troubling" without ruling on their truth.
| Court | U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia |
| Case Number | 1:20-cv-03460 (DLF) |
| Judge | Dabney L. Friedrich |
| Filed | November 27, 2020 |
| Named Defendants | James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Kevin Clinesmith, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Joe Pientka III, Stephen Somma, Brian J. Auten |
| Outcome | Dismissed Sept. 1, 2022; affirmed on appeal May 23, 2025; cert. denied June 15, 2026 |
Page appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which heard oral argument on September 6, 2024 before Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Cornelia Pillard, and Michelle Childs. The panel affirmed the dismissal on May 23, 2025, holding that Page's FISA claims were time-barred because he had actual or inquiry notice of the alleged surveillance by April 2017, when a Washington Post article first reported it, more than three years before he sued. Page then petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing that mere suspicion of surveillance should not start the statute-of-limitations clock; the Court denied that petition, No. 25-705, on June 15, 2026, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson not participating because of her earlier service on the D.C. federal courts.
Did Carter Page Settle the Lawsuit?
Yes and no. The federal government agreed to pay Carter Page a $1.25 million settlement in April 2026 to resolve his separate claims against the United States, but that settlement did not cover his claims against James Comey and the other named former officials personally, which the Supreme Court later declined to revive.
Page's original complaint sought $75 million in damages; the $1.25 million figure is the amount the government actually agreed to pay, not the amount a court found he was owed, since no court ever ruled on the merits of his surveillance allegations. A Justice Department spokesperson said at the time that "no American should ever face covert and unlawful surveillance based on their political views."
The settlement was one of several similar payouts tied to the Russia investigation; former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn separately received roughly $1.2 million from the same Treasury Judgment Fund over his own claims of misconduct in the same probe.
Latest Carter Page Lawsuit Updates
The latest Carter Page lawsuit updates and news, including new filings, rulings, and case-count reports, are tracked below as they're confirmed. No settlement date has been set as of September 2026; the Carter Page MDL remains in active pretrial litigation. Every verified development is listed in the timeline below, in order.
Carter Page Lawsuit Timeline
Supreme Court Denies Carter Page's Petition, Closing the Case Against Comey and the Others
The Supreme Court declined to hear Page's appeal without explanation, a customary practice for petition denials, leaving the D.C. Circuit's dismissal in place and ending his remaining claims against the eight named former officials.
Federal Government Agrees to Pay Page $1.25 Million
The Trump administration's Justice Department settled Page's separate claims against the United States for $1.25 million while his appeal against the individual officials was still pending before the Supreme Court, a payout comparable to the roughly $1.2 million Michael Flynn separately received over the same Russia investigation.
D.C. Circuit Affirms Dismissal on Statute-of-Limitations Grounds
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that Page had inquiry notice of his surveillance by April 2017, when press reports first surfaced it, meaning his 2020 lawsuit came more than three years too late under FISA's limitations period.
D.C. Circuit Hears Oral Argument
Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Cornelia Pillard, and Michelle Childs heard argument on Page's appeal of the district court's dismissal, nearly two years after Judge Friedrich's original ruling.
Judge Dismisses Page's Lawsuit
Judge Dabney L. Friedrich granted the defendants' motions to dismiss, finding federal law does not permit personal-capacity suits against the individual officials Page sued, even while describing the underlying surveillance allegations as troubling.
Carter Page Files His $75 Million Lawsuit
Page filed his original complaint in Washington's federal district court against the FBI, the Justice Department, James Comey, and seven other named former officials, alleging unlawful surveillance during the 2016 Russia investigation.
Kevin Clinesmith Pleads Guilty to Altering a FISA-Related Email
Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith admitted to falsifying an email used to help renew a wiretap warrant on Page, understating Page's earlier relationship with the CIA, a guilty plea that became a central exhibit in Page's later civil complaint.
How Did James Comey Respond to the Lawsuit's Allegations?
James Comey did not personally admit wrongdoing in the civil lawsuit, and courts never reached the merits of Page's allegations against him, dismissing the case on legal and timing grounds instead. Comey led the FBI from 2013 until President Trump fired him in May 2017, and he approved the early stages of the Russia investigation, including the initial FISA application targeting Page.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the inspector general's findings, Comey called the flawed surveillance application "embarrassing" and "sloppy," while stopping short of accepting personal legal responsibility for the errors it contained. The inspector general's own report found no evidence of political bias behind the FBI's decision to open the broader Russia investigation, even while identifying serious performance failures in how the Page surveillance applications were prepared.
Comey has separately faced his own federal criminal charges, unrelated to Page's civil suit, discussed below. He was never named as a defendant in any criminal case tied to the Page surveillance itself.
Is the Carter Page Lawsuit the Same as the Criminal Case Against James Comey?
No. "Comey lawsuit" can refer to two entirely separate federal matters years apart, and conflating them misattributes facts from one to the other. Only Carter Page's own civil suit against Comey and seven other former officials, described on this page, is the case the Supreme Court closed in June 2026.
James Comey was separately indicted by a federal grand jury in 2025 on charges of making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding, tied to his 2020 Senate testimony, and faced a second, distinct 2026 case involving allegations that a social media post of his threatened the president. Comey has denied wrongdoing in both criminal matters. Neither criminal case is part of, or a continuation of, Carter Page's civil lawsuit, and neither depends on the surveillance allegations Page raised.
| Case | Type | Plaintiff/Prosecutor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Page v. Comey (this page) | Civil lawsuit | Carter Page | Closed; cert. denied June 15, 2026, after a $1.25M government settlement |
| United States v. Comey (distinct case) | Criminal prosecution, 2025 | U.S. Department of Justice | Separate false-statements/obstruction charges tied to 2020 Senate testimony; Comey denies wrongdoing |
| Second Comey criminal matter (distinct case) | Criminal prosecution, 2026 | U.S. Department of Justice | Separate allegations involving a social media post; Comey denies wrongdoing |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Carter Page lawsuit about?
The Carter Page lawsuit is a federal civil case Page filed against former FBI Director James Comey and seven other former FBI and Justice Department officials, alleging the bureau unlawfully surveilled him during the 2016 Russia investigation using flawed FISA warrant applications.
Is the Carter Page lawsuit a class action?
No. The Carter Page lawsuit is a single-plaintiff federal civil case, not a class action or multidistrict litigation. There is exactly one plaintiff, Carter Page, and eight named individual defendants, with no other claimants ever joined to the case.
Did Carter Page settle his lawsuit?
Partly. The federal government agreed to pay Page $1.25 million in April 2026 to resolve his claims against the United States itself, but his separate claims against James Comey and the other named individuals were never settled; the Supreme Court closed those claims by declining review in June 2026.
How much money did Carter Page get from his lawsuit?
Page received a reported $1.25 million from the federal government, well below the $75 million he originally sought in his 2020 complaint. That figure covers only his claims against the government; he received nothing from Comey or the other individual defendants, whose dismissal was upheld through the Supreme Court.
Was Carter Page ever charged with a crime?
No. Carter Page was never criminally charged in connection with the FBI's Russia investigation or the surveillance that targeted him, and he has consistently denied having improper ties to Russia.
Is the Carter Page lawsuit the same as the criminal case against James Comey?
No. Carter Page's civil lawsuit against Comey and others over FBI surveillance is a legally distinct matter from James Comey's own later criminal prosecutions, which involve separate false-statements, obstruction, and threat-related allegations unconnected to Page's surveillance claims.