Overview
- The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Carter Page’s appeal to restart his suit against former FBI officials, leaving in place lower courts’ rulings that the case cannot proceed.
- The decision follows an April settlement in which the Department of Justice agreed to pay Page $1.25 million to resolve his claims against the government.
- A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report documented 17 significant errors or omissions in the FISA warrant applications that authorized surveillance of Page and a former FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to altering an email used in the filings.
- The key legal dispute rested on when the three‑year statute of limitations should begin because Page argued the clock started with the 2019 OIG report rather than earlier press reports about the surveillance.
- With the Supreme Court’s denial and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson not participating, Page’s path to hold individual officials personally liable is effectively closed and the outcome shifts the debate toward oversight, the OIG’s findings, and the FBI’s corrective steps to improve FISA accuracy.