If you’ve been paying attention over the last few days, you knew this was coming!
In a recent major ruling, the FISA Court found that at least two of the four FISA warrants used to spy on Page were illegal because they lacked probable cause!
That was the domino that set the entire house of cards tumbling.
Take a look:
With that base established, the lawsuit was sure to follow.
And here it is:
Fox News reports:
Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page filed a lawsuit Thursday in federal court against the Democratic National Committee, law firm Perkins Coie and its partners tied to the funding of the unverified dossier that served as the basis for highly controversial surveillance warrants against him.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division Thursday morning, and was described by his attorneys as the “first of multiple actions in the wake of historic” Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse.
“This is a first step to ensure that the full extent of the FISA abuse that has occurred during the last few years is exposed and remedied,” attorney John Pierce said Thursday. “Defendants and those they worked with inside the federal government did not and will not succeed in making America a surveillance state.”
He added: “This is only the first salvo. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads, no matter how high. … The rule of law will prevail.”
Page first filed a defamation suit on his own against the parties in October 2018 in federal court in Oklahoma, but that suit was dismissed in January 2019 after the judge ruled the court lacked jurisdiction over the case because neither Page nor the DNC had strong enough ties to the state.
Page is now represented by Pierce, the global managing partner of Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP. They filed in Illinois because they allege the relationship with the firm behind the dossier, Fusion GPS, was “orchestrated” through law firm Perkins Coie's Chicago office. The suit also claims the DNC "has a historical pattern” of making Chicago its principal place of business.
Pierce called the suit the first in a “campaign to restore Dr. Page’s name and hold those who targeted him accountable.”
Page’s lawsuit does not specify the amount sought, instead seeking “compensatory, special and punitive damages in appropriate amounts to be established at trial.”
The suit alleges that the DNC, Perkins Coie and partners Marc Elias and Michael Sussman “used false information, misrepresentations and other misconduct to direct the power of the international intelligence apparatus and the media industry against” Page “to further their political agenda.”
And from The Hill:
Former Trump campaign aide Carter Page announced Thursday that he has filed a lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and law firm Perkins Coie over the unsubstantiated dossier that played a key role in the seeking of FISA warrants against him.
The dossier, which contains numerous unverified claims, was commissioned by Fusion GPS and compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Despite its role in the surveillance of Page, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz has said the dossier was not the basis for the investigation of then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. The Justice Department has since determined that warrants to wiretap Page were unlawfully obtained and excluded information showing that Page was a CIA source.
Page’s attorneys said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, was the “first of multiple actions” addressing abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and its associated court.
“This is a first step to ensure that the full extent of the FISA abuse that has occurred during the last few years is exposed and remedied,” Page’s attorney John Pierce said Thursday, according to Fox News. “Defendants and those they worked with inside the federal government did not and will not succeed in making America a surveillance state.”
Page previously filed a defamation suit in Oklahoma in October 2018, but the court threw out the suit in January 2019, ruling that he and the DNC lacked ties to the state. His attorneys argue the new lawsuit has jurisdiction in Illinois because Perkins Coie’s Chicago office was the site from which Fusion GPS “orchestrated” its work with the DNC.
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