The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department told the Supreme Court on April 22, 2026, that it had settled Carter Page’s case over surveillance tied to the FBI’s Russia investigation. Court papers in the case show the government filed a notice that day saying the dispute had been resolved, but the filing did not give a dollar figure. AP reported that a person familiar with the deal said the settlement is worth $1.25 million.

Page, who advised Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, sued over government surveillance connected to the Russia inquiry. Lower courts rejected the case on timeliness grounds, and the government had been asking the Supreme Court to take up the matter. Instead, the Justice Department opted to end the litigation through settlement rather than keep pressing the appeal.

The settlement closes the case, but it does not amount to a ruling on whether the surveillance was lawful. It also does not resolve the broader political fight over the Russia investigation, which Trump and his allies have long cast as evidence of bias against them. What it does do is end one more piece of old litigation from that era, with the government choosing finality over another round in court.

The timing matters. The Supreme Court docket shows the government’s brief was filed on April 22, not April 23, and that chronology is what fixes the record here. The money figure belongs to reporting on the settlement, not to the filing itself. That distinction is small, but in a case this politicized, accuracy is the whole point.