Former Trump adviser Carter Page made his first court appearance Tuesday — acting as his own lawyer — in his ongoing defamation suit against media giant Oath.
Page told the federal judge she should ignore a motion to dismiss filed by Oath’s lawyers — and let his case continue.
“There were multiple false defamatory articles against me… that totally misrepresented what I am,” Page told Judge Lorna Schofield.
The ex-adviser to President Trump has denied allegations published by Oath that he was entangled in Russia’s election-meddling.
“They were false allegations. I gave a speech in Moscow in 2016. It was totally misrepresented,” Page insisted.
The 46-year-old financier, formerly based in Russia, was named as an adviser to Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
Page’s name came up again in September when reports first surfaced of Kremlin meddling in the U.S. presidential election.
A report from Yahoo News said that American intelligence was looking into Page after a July 2016 trip to Moscow, as well as the possibility that he met with top Russian officials.
Page then sued Yahoo’s parent company, Oath, as well as the Broadcasting Board of Governors, whose outlet Radio Free Europe wrote an account based off of the original story.
He has also slammed HuffPost, another Oath outlet, for defamatory articles.
Judge Schofield said she wasn’t yet ready to rule on the motion to dismiss on Tuesday.
She did allow attorneys for Oath Inc. to exchange documents with Page — but no evidence — before she announces a decision.
Oath lawyer James Rosenfeld said Page has no case.
“Our position is that all reporting we did was 100% true, substantially true. Mr. Page filed an enormous complaint,” he said.
Page has insisted that the initial reporting about his alleged links to Russian election meddling was based on an intelligence dossier that’s since been debunked.
“They put together a list of falsehoods. In my opinion, this may be the most egregious defamation ever,” he said in a rambling statement to the judge.
“I was the only one who was pointed out,” he said, adding that he’s faced death threats to himself and his family.
The bad press against him continues, he told the judge, pointing to a Tuesday story in The New York Times.
He also admitted to the judge that even though he is representing himself, he is “no legal expert by any stretch of the imagination.”
