A Federal Judge in Florida dismissed a racketeering lawsuit that Donald Trump filed in March against Hillary Clinton and a slew of other defendants, saying the suit was “inadequate in nearly every respect.” Among the other defendants included Russia, Russia, Russia adversaries James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Adam Schiff, and Christopher Steele.
Trump filed the suit in March alleging that Clinton and the others “orchestrated a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information” about his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia.
Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida said the lawsuit was not seeking “redress for any legal harm” and that the court was “not the appropriate forum” for what amounted to a political rant.
“At its core, the problem with Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint is that Plaintiff is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm; instead, he is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, and this Court is not the appropriate forum,” the judge wrote.
Middlebrooks, a Bill Clinton appointee, eviscerated the Trump lawsuit in a 65-page ruling detailing how his claims are outside the statute of limitations, lack standing, twist reasoning, defy known facts, or misinterpret the law.
- Trump had sought compensatory and punitive damages, saying he had incurred more than $24 million in “defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses.”
- The judge said Trump claims “supposed falsehoods” damaged his political career, however he must know that “he—not Defendant Clinton—won the 2016 presidential election.”