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WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court on Friday to revive his dismissed lawsuit against his 2016 Democratic rival Hillary Clinton accusing her of conspiring \u200balong with former FBI Director James Comey and others to rig that year\u2019s election by linking his campaign to Russia.<\/p>\n
The Republican president filed his appeal after a federal judge threw out the case and imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump and one of his lawyers for bringing a \u201cfrivolous\u201d suit. A US appeals court subsequently upheld the dismissal and sanctions.<\/p>\n
In 2022, when he was out of office after losing the 2020 election, Trump sued Clinton, Comey, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the Democratic National Committee and numerous others in a lengthy complaint filed in federal court in Florida.<\/p>\n
Trump, who has a history of suing adversaries, alleged that in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Clinton conspired with allies to discredit him with a \u201cfalse narrative\u201d that he \u200cand his campaign colluded with \u200cRussia. The lengthy suit alleged \u201cracketeering\u201d and a \u201cconspiracy to commit injurious falsehood,\u201d among other \u200bclaims.<\/p>\n
Trump \u200cdefeated \u2060Clinton in \u200bthat \u2060election, despite losing the national popular vote, and served his first term in office from 2017 to 2021.<\/p>\n
US government officials have accused Russia of meddling in the 2016 election, and an investigation led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller documented extensive contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives who sought to influence the election in his favor. Trump has called the idea of Russian interference a \u201choax.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since losing to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, Trump has made false claims of widespread voting fraud in that year\u2019s election. Trump regained the presidency by defeating Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024, and has continued to make those false claims.<\/p>\n
\u2019Political manifesto\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed Trump\u2019s lawsuit against \u2060Clinton, citing numerous inadequacies, including that Trump waited too long to bring some of the \u200cclaims. The judge likened Trump\u2019s lawsuit to a \u201ctwo-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against \u200cthose that have opposed him.\u201d<\/p>\n Middlebrooks later ordered Trump and his lead attorney in the \u200bcase, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $1 million in fees \u200cand costs, imposing the sanctions for bringing a case that the judge said was intended \u201cto dishonestly advance a political narrative.\u201d The judge \u200calso faulted Trump and his lawyers for a \u201ccontinuing pattern of misuse of the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n Middlebrooks found that the lawsuit used abusive litigation tactics, contained \u201cknowingly false\u201d factual allegations and asserted \u201cfrivolous\u201d legal theories.<\/p>\n The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge\u2019s rulings in 2025, including the sanctions.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of Trump\u2019s and Habba\u2019s legal arguments were indeed frivolous,\u201d the 11th Circuit stated.<\/p>\n In court papers, lawyers for Trump and Habba have said that the \u200cdecisions by the lower courts are having a \u201cprofound impact on the presidency, and the nation as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n Mueller, serving as a special counsel appointed by the Justice Department, issued \u2060a 2019 report on his \u2060investigation. The report stated that Russia \u201cinterfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion,\u201d but stated that \u201cthe investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.\u201d<\/p>\n Mueller said in his report that he found \u201cnumerous links\u201d and that the Trump campaign \u201cexpected it would benefit\u201d from Russia\u2019s effort to tilt the ballot in Trump\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s then-Attorney General William Barr appointed a different special counsel, John Durham, in 2019 to look into potential missteps by the FBI.<\/p>\n In a 2023 report, Durham concluded that the FBI lacked \u201cactual evidence\u201d to investigate Trump\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign and relied too heavily on tips provided by Trump\u2019s political opponents to fuel the probe.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s Justice Department last year indicted Comey, one of several adversaries of the president hit with criminal charges, accusing him of making false statements and obstructing Congress after he was accused of lying about authorizing leaks to the news media. A federal judge subsequently dismissed the indictment, finding that the prosecutor who Trump handpicked to prosecute \u200bComey had been unlawfully appointed.<\/p>\n Steele, working for an opposition \u200bresearch firm that was hired by a law firm on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, produced a dossier that alleged ties between Trump\u2019s campaign and Russia as well as other salacious accusations, all of which Trump denied.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n