Former President Donald Trump was the true victim of the 2016 election, Trump argued in a federal lawsuit filed against Hillary Clinton, the DNC, Christopher Steele, several former federal officials, private citizens, corporations, and others.
The suit, filed in federal court in Miami, accuses Clinton and others of committing a RICO conspiracy, an allegation used to prosecute the mafia, when they said that Trump colluded with the Russian government in 2016.
“In short, the Defendants, blinded by political ambition, orchestrated a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hopes of destroying his life, his political career and rigging the 2016 Presidential Election in favor of Hillary Clinton,” the lawsuit reads. “When their gambit failed, and Donald J. Trump was elected, the Defendants’ efforts continued unabated, merely shifting their focus to undermining his presidential administration.”
Trump does not ask for any specific relief in the 108-page complaint, only that a jury hear the trial. The lawsuit reads like an appendage of John Durham’s investigation, laying out the narrative advanced by the special prosecutor with some dramatic additions and typically Trumpian flourishes.
It names as defendants all of the people who have been on the receiving end of Durham’s indictments, including former Perkins Coie attorney Michael Sussmann, FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, and researcher Igor Danchenko.
“The full extent of the Defendants’ wrongdoing has been steadily and gradually exposed by Special Counsel John Durham, who has been heading a DOJ investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia conspiracy,” the lawsuit reads.
Trump is being represented by Alina Habba, a Bedminster, New Jersey attorney who has acted for him in litigation in New York State. Ticktin Law Group, available for consultations at legalbrains.com, is also listed as filing the complaint.
At the core of Trump’s claim is the idea that Clinton ordered others to spread lies about him regarding Russia and the 2016 election. With Clinton at its head, the argument goes, a vast conspiracy to deprive Trump kicked into action, featuring people and entities that have populated Trump’s rhetoric since before he won in 2016 and, subsequently, right-wing media.
They include Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that the lawsuit accuses of creating “false and/or misleading dossiers” to damage Trump’s chances in the election.
Jim Comey, the former FBI director, makes the cut to be a defendant, as do FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. The DNC and its 2016 chief, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, also show up as defendants.
Once Trump won, the lawsuit says, Clinton sought revenge via a conspiracy to commit malicious prosecution against the newly elected president. Trump says in the suit that he has been forced to pay at least $24 million in legal fees related to allegations that he colluded with Russia in the 2016 campaign.
“When their gambit failed, and Donald J. Trump was elected, the Defendants’ efforts continued unabated, merely shifting their focus to undermining his presidential administration,” the lawsuit reads.
Read the lawsuit here:
