Donald Trump sues Hillary Clinton and allies over Russia claims
Sprawling lawsuit accuses a large cast of racketeering conspiracy over allegations that Trump was in Putin's pocket in 2016.
Former President Donald Trump is suing 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a sprawling case that accuses her of conspiring with dozens of other actors — frequent targets of Trump’s conspiracy theories and rage — to topple his presidency.
The new lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Fort Pierce, Fla., accuses Clinton, her campaign, various campaign aides, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee and others of racketeering conspiracy for allegedly joining in “an unthinkable plot” to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
“In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot – one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” the complaint says. “Acting in concert, the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty.”
The suit accused the defendants of obstruction of justice and theft of trade secrets, as well as unlawful hacking into Trump’s private communications.
“The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme—falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources—are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison,” the complaint adds.
The sprawling, 108-page complaint reads like a greatest-hits of Trump’s long-held grievances against the public figures most closely associated with the investigation of his campaign’s ties to Russia in 2016. It stitches together disparate details unearthed in the ongoing investigation by special counsel John Durham, as well as long-known details about the FBI’s Russia probe and special counsel Robert Mueller’s subsequent investigation.
The suit appears to seek more than $72 million in damages, which the complaint says is the tally of legal fees and other costs of defending against the alleged untruths. In another court filing in the case, Trump’s attorneys asked for only $21 million.
Among the defendants in the case is a former State Department official and spokesperson for Clinton, Philippe Reines. The only specific allegations against him in the suit are that he made public statements suggesting that Trump had worked with Russia in 2016 and that he had serious legal woes.
The suit says that after Trump reportedly blocked sanctions on Russia in 2018, Reines tweeted: “yes collusion, yes collusion, yes collusion.” The suit also alleges that after publication of Mueller’s report in 2019, Reines said on Fox News that Trump was still “under investigation by 17 other entities including the Southern District of New York.”
Reines responded nonchalantly to the suit Thursday. “I look forward to deposing the plaintiff,” he wrote on Twitter.
Another defendant in the suit, former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, said through his attorney that the suit was likely wildly inaccurate.
“We haven’t had a chance to read the complaint, but knowing the former president, there’s probably very little in there that’s true,” said the lawyer, Aitan Goelman.
Goelman also said it was “odd” that Trump was filing a new suit against Strzok and others while the former president is fighting efforts to depose him in connection with a suit Strzok has filed claiming he was fired from the FBI for political reasons.
The suit was filed by Alina Habba, a Bedminster, N.J.,-based attorney Trump tapped last year after dismissing other more prominent lawyers who had been handling much of the wide range of litigation he faces in various courts. A Deerfield Beach, Fla.,-based lawyer, Peter Ticktin, is serving as the lead local counsel.
In the public docket for the case, Trump’s attorneys included the home addresses of the vast majority of the defendants in the suit. For Trump, however, they listed the address of Ticktin’s law firm.
The suit was assigned on Thursday to U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who is based in West Palm Beach, Fla., and was appointed by former President Bill Clinton. In 2015, Middlebrooks tossed out a civil racketeering suit filed against Hillary Clinton over her practice of using a private email account and server while she served as secretary of State.
Betsy Woodruff Swan contributed to this report.