Trump's Hillary Clinton lawsuit 'accidentally proves' she wasn't the driving force behind Russia probe: columnist

This Thursday, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and others, claiming they “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative” that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.

“Acting in concert, the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty,” the lawsuit states. “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.”

Writing in The Washington Post this Friday, columnist Phillip Bump says there was something that stood out to him in Trump's lawsuit.

"...as Trump and his lawyers were trying to prove that Clinton was the driving force behind the investigation into Russian interference, they were relying on documents released as part of that interference effort. It’s some mixture of dishonest and galling — and it’s not even the most ridiculous part of the case the lawsuit tries to make," Bump writes.

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According to Trump's lawsuit, in July of 2016 “U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee.”

Bump writes that "it was bizarre to use this as some sort of indication that Clinton was driving the Russia probe for two reasons."

Bump says that, one, Clinton’s campaign was already "publicly elevating questions" about Trump’s alleged links to Russia before July 26, when her alleged plan to launch the Steele dossier into public discourse was hatched. Second, even in October 2020, "it was clear that the probe wasn’t a function of Clinton’s campaign. There was lots of information about what actually launched the investigation, none of which was downstream from Clinton."

Read his full analysis over at The Washington Post.