The Democratic National Committee’s legal team, bolstered by Obama White House lawyers, moved to dismiss a lawsuit from onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, arguing the “gist” of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s controversial dossier was true.
In January, Page filed a lawsuit against the DNC, powerhouse law firm Perkins Coie, and its lawyers Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann, alleging they maliciously engaged in a defamatory conspiracy in 2016 that cast false light on his character and interfered with his ability to make a living.
“The Defendants are private actors who used false information, misrepresentations, and other misconduct to direct the power of the international intelligence apparatus and the media industry against a private individual, Plaintiff Carter Page, to further their political agenda,” Page’s 23-page complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois read.
This week, the high-profile lawyers defending the DNC and Perkins Coie filed a 43-page motion asking the judge to dismiss the case, claiming that the court lacked jurisdiction, that Page’s claims of defamation and conspiracy passed the statute of limitations, and that Page failed plausibly to allege defamation and conspiracy. They also argued Page had not alleged “actual malice” or proven any economic losses.
The DNC’s attorneys insisted “the allegedly defamatory statements” against Page “were substantially true” and “are capable of an innocent construction.”
“Here, the ‘gist’ of the complained-of statements — that Page coordinated with Russian government contacts as an adviser to the Trump campaign — aligns with Page’s own description of his conduct,” the DNC’s team said. “Page’s own allegations demonstrate the substantial truth of statements that Page traveled to Russia and met with associates of the Russian government. Plaintiffs’ defamation claims should be dismissed based on that basis alone.”
Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a report in December that criticized the DOJ and the FBI for at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act monitoring of Page, a U.S. citizen who was suspected of being an agent for Russia but was never charged with wrongdoing, and for its heavy reliance on Steele’s salacious and unverified dossier, which was funded by the DNC.
The DNC legal team, compromised of five lawyers from Latham & Watkins, including lead counsel Terra Reynolds, former Obama deputy White House counsel Nicholas McQuaid, and former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, claimed: “The statements at issue in this case are not merely susceptible of an innocent construction — they relate to business and political contacts that Page himself undisputedly cultivated in Russia.”
The reports by special counsel Robert Mueller and Horowitz cast doubts on assertions made by Steele in his dossier, which was published in part in a September 2016 Yahoo News article that was used in FISA filings against Page and in full by BuzzFeed in January 2017.
Steele’s dossier claimed there was “a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between the Trump campaign and the Russians, which was “managed” by Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort by “using … Page and others as intermediaries” with the Russians. The compilation of reports also asserted that, in the summer of 2016, Page held “secret meetings” with Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin and Putin’s deputy chief Igor Divyekin during which Sechin mentioned “lifting Western sanctions against Russia” and Divyekin discussed releasing a “Russian dossier of kompromat” on Hillary Clinton. These claims were echoed in Yahoo’s Michael Isikoff’s article citing a “Western intelligence source”: Steele.
Page’s lawsuit flatly stated he “did not and has not met with those individuals” and that “Dr. Page’s life and businesses were devastated by the false accusations that he was secretly meeting with sanctioned Russian officials.”
Indeed, Mueller’s report noted that his investigation “identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign” but “did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.” Horowitz’s report noted the FBI found no evidence that Page had met with either Russian and criticized the bureau for concealing Page’s repeated denials from the FISA court.
Steele put his research together in 2016 at the behest of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was funded by Clinton’s campaign and the DNC through the Perkins Coie law firm. Perkins Coie was paid more than $12 million between 2016 and 2017 for its work representing Clinton and the DNC. Fusion GPS was paid $50,000 per month from Perkins Coie, and Steele was paid $168,000 by Fusion GPS.
“The DNC, through Perkins Coie, Elias, and Sussman, hired Fusion GPS not to report the truth but to create dirt,” Page alleged. “And they forged ahead with disseminating the defamatory information produced by Fusion GPS to further Defendants’ own political ambitions.”
Elias heads Perkins Coie’s political law group and was the Clinton campaign’s former general counsel. Clinton’s former presidential campaign manager Robby Mook said he authorized Elias to hire an outside firm to dig up dirt on Trump’s connections with Russia. Mook said Elias was receiving information from Fusion GPS and periodically briefed the Clinton campaign about the findings.
Sussmann, another Perkins Coie lawyer, passed along information from “cyber experts” not tied to the dossier but still related to the Trump-Russia investigation to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in 2016, according to Baker’s testimony.
Following the release of Horowitz’s report in December, the Justice Department told the FISA court it believed the final two Page FISA orders were “invalid.” The FBI told the court it planned to “sequester” all the information obtained through the surveillance of Page. Horowitz’s report also criticized Steele directly, noting that FBI meetings with Steele’s sources “raised significant questions about the reliability of the Steele election reporting.” The CIA referred to Steele’s dossier as “internet rumor.”
The FISA court ordered a review of all FISA filings handled by Kevin Clinesmith, the FBI lawyer who altered a key document about Page, claiming Page was “not a source” for the CIA when he had been, while seeking to renew the third warrant. Clinesmith is now under criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
