Overview
(September 2, 2022, Washington, DC) – A federal judge in Washington, DC dismissed a lawsuit brought by Carter Page, an advisor to the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, arising from surveillance of Page during the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s counterintelligence investigation into links between Russian officials and former President Trump’s associates. Page sued the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the FBI, and various current and former national security officials, and alleged that the surveillance was based on erroneous search warrant applications submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). In a 54-page opinion, Judge Dabney Friedrich (US District Court for the District of Columbia) dismissed all of the claims.
Separate Steptoe teams represented two of the individual defendants. Partner Brigida Benitez led the team that represented Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Director of the FBI, which also included senior counsel Michael Bromwich and associate Lisa Southerland. Partner Patrick Linehan led the team that represented FBI Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, and included partner Brian Heberlig and associates Jay Hobbs, Jessica Maneval, and James Purce.
The Court found that civil claims under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) can only be brought against “individual defendants [who] personally conducted the surveillance or acquired or collected his communications.” The Court also held that Page’s Bivens claim should be dismissed because “an extension of the Bivens remedy to this 'new context' is unwarranted.” The Court also dismissed Page’s claims against the United States and the law enforcement agencies for violating the Privacy Act, the Federal Tort Claims Act, and the Patriot Act.
About Steptoe
In more than 100 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
