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A federal judge dismissed former President Trump’s lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and a number of other high-profile figures involved in creating the narrative that he and his 2016 presidential campaign were colluding with Russia.
Trump filed the lawsuit in March in the Southern District of Florida, alleging that Clinton and her “cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot” and “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative” that Trump was colluding with Russia.
This week, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks threw out the lawsuit, saying that “most of” Trump’s claims were “unsupported by any legal authority” and said the lawsuit lacks “substance.”
TRUMP SUES HILLARY CLINTON, DNC, OFFICIALS INVOLVED IN RUSSIA PROBE
Middlebrooks said Trump’s suit is “not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm,” but instead 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.”
President Trump reacts to bombshell testimony that Hillary Clinton OK’d spreading Russia lie
(FOX )
Trump lawyer Alina Habba told Fox News Friday the former president’s attorneys plan to appeal the decision to dismiss the case.
“We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the Court today,” Habba said. “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 added: “We will immediately move to appeal this decision.”
The Clinton campaign said FBI Director James Comey caused some of “the most damaging days” of the campaign.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Trump filed the suit against Clinton, her 2016 presidential campaign, the DNC, law firm Perkins Coie, former Clinton campaign lawyers Michael Sussmann and Marc Elias, former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, former Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, opposition research firm Fusion GPS, former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and more.
Ex-FBI official Peter Strzok was fired in 2018 for sending out anti-Trump texts.
(Reuters)
Perkins Coie is the firm the DNC and the Clinton campaign funded the anti-Trump dossier through. The unverified anti-Trump dossier was authored by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, commissioned by opposition research firm Fusion GPS, and funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign through law firm Perkins Coie.
The dossier served as the basis for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
The mainstream media has largely avoided covering the trial of ex-Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who has been charged with making a false statement to the FBI.
(REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson)
The suit also was brought against former Clinton attorneys Marc Elias – who was a partner for Perkins Coie – and Michael Sussmann, who was indicted as part of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe with making a false statement to the FBI. Sussmann was found not guilty.
Special Counsel John Durham.
(REUTERS/Julia Nikhinson)
Former Attorney General Bill Barr appointed John Durham, then the U.S. attorney from Connecticut, in 2019 to investigate the origins of the FBI’s original Russia probe, or Crossfire Hurricane, which began in July 2016, through the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017 shortly after Mueller completed his years-long investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded or coordinated with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election.
Mueller’s investigation found no evidence of illegal or criminal coordination between Trump or the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016.
In this May 29, 2019, file photo, special counsel Robert Mueller speaks at the Department of Justice Wednesday, in Washington, about the Russia investigation. The debate over special counsel Robert Mueller’s report is getting new life with word that Mueller has agreed to testify publicly before two House committees. Democrats say Mueller will appear July 17 in back-to-back sessions of the Judiciary and Intelligence committees. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Meanwhile, the Trump-Russia allegations did not only spur federal law enforcement investigations but also congressional ones.
Neither the House nor Senate investigation found evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.
“This is one of the greatest political scandals in history,” Trump told Fox News earlier this year. “For three years, I had to fight her off, and fight those crooked people off, and you’ll never get your reputation fully back.”
“Where do I get my reputation back?” Trump said again.
