Judge rejects Trump lawsuit against Hillary Clinton for linking him to Russia

A federal judge dismissed the former president’s lawsuit Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton the Democratic National Committee, several former FBI officials, and more than two dozen other people and entities he alleges conspired to undermine his 2016 campaign by trying to smear him with information that ties him to Russia.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed the lawsuit on Thursday, saying that “most of the plaintiff’s claims are not only not supported by any legal authority, but clearly terminated by binding precedent.”

“Which [o processo] lacks substance and legal backing, it seeks to replace with extension, hyperbole and settling of scores and grievances,” wrote Middlebrooks, nominated by Bill Clinton.

Trump filed his lawsuit in March, listing a broad cast of characters the Republican has accused for years of orchestrating a conspiracy against him — including former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials, retired British spy Christopher Steele and his colleagues. associates and a handful of Hillary campaign advisers.

Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida points out that there were “blatant problems” with Trump’s “bold” interpretations of the law, and that many of the former president’s specific factual claims were “implausible” or unsupported.

Trump “is not trying to seek redress for any legal harm,” Middlebrooks said. “Instead, he is trying to air a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those who opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum.”

The decision is a legal victory for the figures Trump has prosecuted, many of whom were involved in the 2016 Clinton campaign or the US government’s efforts to investigate Russian interference in that election.

This includes Hillary, several of her top 2016 campaign officials, the Democratic National Committee, her former deputy Andrew McCabe, former FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. It also includes Steele, author of the Trump-Russia dossier, and the opposition group Steele worked with, Fusion GPS.

The suit accused a large group of former US government officials and Democratic agents of orchestrating a “parallel state” conspiracy against him and perpetuating a massive sham in the form of an investigation into Russia. Trump, who has defended these baseless claims for years and included them in the lawsuit, has sought $24 million in damages.

Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, says Trump “will immediately appeal the decision.”

“We strongly disagree with the opinion issued by the Court today,” Habba told CNN in a statement. “Not only is it fraught with misapplications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent government investigations that substantiate our allegation that defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 presidential election.”

In April, Clinton’s lawyers asked the judge to drop the case, arguing that it “had no merit.”

Hillary’s team argued that she should not be a defendant in federal court in South Florida because too many years had passed to allow a lawsuit centered on 2016 events.