Former Trump campaign adviser files defamation suit over stories reporting on possible Russia links
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Carter Page, a former informal adviser to President Donald Trump, has filed a defamation suit against the parent company of Yahoo and the Huffington Post for reports on a possible meeting between Page and Russian officials.
Page’s pro se suit (PDF) against Oath Inc. claims an initial Yahoo story, published in September 2016, is “perhaps the most dangerous, reckless, irresponsible and historically-instrumental moments in modern-day sensational crime story journalism.” The suit also targets the federal board overseeing Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty for repeating the claim. The New York Law Journal (sub. req.), the New York Daily News and the New York Post have stories.
The Yahoo article said U.S. officials were investigating a report that Page met with two Russian officials with ties to Vladimir Putin. Page “never met with either of these individuals at any point in his life,” the suit says, and the article author has a “broader fixation on Russia-related conspiracy theories.”
The suit says the Huffington Post article repeated falsehoods in the Yahoo report and falsely alleged he once compared sanctions against Russia to police killing black men.
Page says in the suit that he never met Trump although he had served as a “junior, unpaid, informal” adviser to Trump. Because of the articles, Page didn’t have any chance to make any meaningful contribution to Trump’s foreign policy committee, the suit says.
