A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by former President Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic party, media organizations and dozens of others, saying Trump used the court to “flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances.”
Judge Donald Middlebrooks wrote in his ruling Thursday the court was “not the appropriate forum” for Trump’s complaints about his rivals and others. The lawsuit accused Democrats and others of a “conspiracy” to link Trump to Russia during and after the 2016 presidential campaign.
“At its core, the problem with [Trump’s] complaint is that [Trump] is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm,” wrote Middlebrooks, who serves the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
Alina Habba, an attorney for Trump, said “we vehemently disagree” with the ruling.
“Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 Presidential election,” Habba said.
She said Trump intends to appeal.
David Kendall, an attorney for Clinton, lauded the ruling in an email to CBS News.
“The court’s opinion meticulously and comprehensively devastates Trump’s allegations,” Kendall said.
The lawsuit’s dismissal comes as a growing whirlwind of legal problems circles Trump and many of his closest associates.
Trump is fighting a federal investigation into his handling of documents, seized at his Mar-a-Lago home, marked “secret,” “top secret,” “confidential” and “classified/TS/SCI,” or top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
On Thursday, Trump’s former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon turned himself in to Manhattan prosecutors, who charged Bannon with fraud and other crimes related to a nonprofit he was involved in. Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress in July for failing to comply with a House Jan. 6 Select Committee subpoena.
Trump and dozens of his allies and supporters, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, are the subjects of a criminal investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, focused on Trump’s conduct following the 2020 election.
His company, the Trump Organization, is facing a criminal trial in New York City in October, and the New York attorney general is expected to announce civil enforcement related to alleged fraud in the coming weeks.
