Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo Judge nixes ex-Trump adviser Carter Page's suit over Yahoo Russia article

A federal judge has dismissed former Trump adviser Carter Page's legal claims over a September 2016 Yahoo news article that revealed he was under U.S. government scrutiny over his ties to Russia.

U.S. District Court Judge Lorna Schofield rejected a portion of a lawsuit Page filed without an attorney last year seeking damages against Yahoo's parent company Oath over the 2016 story by veteran investigative reporter Michael Isikoff.


Schofield's ruling issued Tuesday came largely on technical grounds. She said the article could not be considered a violation of a federal law known as the Anti-Terrorism Act, despite Page's claim that the story, headlined "U.S. intel officials probe ties between Trump adviser and Kremlin" resulted in death threats against him.

However, Schofield noted that Page never really argued that the Yahoo story was false.

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"The Article does not say that Plaintiff actually met with....two Russians, but rather that U.S. officials had received reports of such meetings," wrote Schofield, an Obama appointee based in Manhattan. "The substance and even headline of the Article express uncertainty about the occurrence and substance of any such meetings. That some readers may have assumed that the meetings occurred does not constitute fraud by the Article’s publisher."

Indeed, the 2016 Yahoo story appears to have been accurate. A House Republican memo declassified by President Donald Trump last month shows that Just weeks after the Yahoo story was published, the FBI sought and obtained a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for Page's communications because of suspicions that he was a conduit for Russian intelligence services.

Page's prolix legal pleadings also included a more pedestrian defamation claim and one for interference with his business dealings, based on both the Yahoo article and various Huffington Post stories. The judge dismissed those claims as well, saying those were state law issues. She didn't rule out considering a revised version of Page's suit, but was dubious about such an effort, saying it would likely be "futile."

In a statement posted on Twitter, Page argued that the judge was misled by high-powered lawyers for Oath. He also took shots at former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump last year, and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was fired last week by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"Similar to the slick maneuvers by Comey & McCabe in the FISC over recent years, clever lawyers for powerful entities often manage to briefly pull the wool over the eyes of busy District Court Judges," Page wrote. "My future updated Complaint will shine an honest light and help restore justice."

Similar to the slick maneuvers by Comey & McCabe in the FISC over recent years, clever lawyers for powerful entities often manage to briefly pull the wool over the eyes of busy District Court Judges. My future updated Complaint will shine an honest light and help restore justice. — Carter Page, Ph.D. (@carterwpage) March 21, 2018

A spokesman for Oath declined to comment on the ruling, citing a policy against commenting on pending litigation.

A portion of Page's suit against the U.S. government Board of Broadcasting Governors over Radio Free Europe news broadcasts he contends libeled and endangered him remains pending. That part of the suit seems likely to be dismissed as well, because damage claims against the federal government generally have to be formally demanded from the agencies involved before going to court.