Carter Page loses appeal in defamation suit against media outlets

Carter Page, the former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, suffered another court loss on Monday when a federal appeals court upheld a trial judge’s decision to throw out his defamation lawsuit against a pair of media outlets.

A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted unanimously to reject Page’s appeal, saying in a brief order that he lacked standing. Two of the judges are appointees of President Trump and one was appointed by former President Carter.

Page had filed the lawsuit against Oath, the parent company of Yahoo News and HuffPost, and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which runs the government-sponsored Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

He alleged that the outlets had knowingly run false articles about him that led to him receiving death threats. Page, who had lived and worked in Russia for years, was the subject of government investigations after the 2016 election into whether the Trump campaign had coordinated with Russia in its interference during the race.

Robert Mueller’s special counsel report concluded that investigators had found no evidence that Page was helping Russia interfere in the election, though Russian intelligence had established relationships with him years before the campaign.

Page claimed to have received death threats after a series of articles from the outlets reporting that he was the subject of federal investigations. He alleged that he was a victim of terrorism perpetrated by the publishers.

He has also filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department alleging privacy violations over its investigation. The Justice Department inspector general is expected to release a report next week detailing the agency’s surveillance of the former campaign adviser.

–Updated at 2:33 p.m.