Carter Page sues media: 'Campaign of lies' ruined his life

FPI / July 29, 2020

Former Trump campaign associate Carter Page on Monday sued the Huffington Post and Yahoo! News for what he said was their "campaign of lies" against him.

The lawsuit states: “This action is brought against multi-billion-dollar media company Oath, Inc. (parent company of Yahoo! News and the Huffington Post), which negligently published false, and defamatory statements of and concerning Dr. Page without privilege and published the statements with actual knowledge of falsity or with a reckless disregard of truth or falsity.”

The lawsuit continues: "Dr. Page is an innocent individual whose entire way of life was shattered as a direct result of being defamed and falsely branded as a traitor to his country by the Defendant’s media brands. He was allegedly secretly plotting with Russian leaders to sabotage the 2016 Presidential Election and give “aid and comfort” to Russian President Putin’s efforts to 'weaken' America. Such criminal acts of treason against the United States are punishable by a death penalty. These false accusations against Dr. Page, a law abiding and patriotic former U.S. Navy officer, were devastating: overnight he was defamed and thrown onto the world stage as a traitor."

The new lawsuit alleges defamation and tortious interference with business relationships, Law&Crime reported.

The lawsuit directly links to a Sept. 23, 2016 Yahoo! News article which is the crux of the complaint.

According to the claims made in the lawsuit:

"The 2016 Yahoo Article included a wealth of categorically and objectively false, misrepresentive, and unverified statements and information compiled by Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd., a private company in London, created on behalf of Fusion GPS, a mercenary investigative firm. Fusion GPS, in turn, curated this information on behalf of, and with input from, its clients: Perkins Coie LLP and the Democratic National Committee, who conspired to use their resources and invent a fictitious claim about hypothetical 'collusion' between the Russian government and the campaign of then-candidate for president Donald Trump."

John Pierce, lead counsel on the case, told Law&Crime:

“You can expect to be shown that, from the very start, Yahoo! News and HuffPost knew that everything they were publishing about Dr. Page was false, and that Yahoo! News and HuffPost deliberately ignored all the tenants of ethical journalism in the pursuit of advertising revenue and political advantage. Finally, you can expect to be shown that Dr. Page – a private citizen no different than any other American – was targeted by a multi-billion dollar corporation, and that every other American is a potential target for such media malfeasance.”

Lin Wood, who recently represented Covington Catholic High School’s Nick Sandmann in media lawsuits, is also on the case.

Free Press International