Former President Donald Trump is suing his 2016 Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and others, accusing them of a “malicious conspiracy” and again claiming they rigged the 2016 election against him.
The lawsuit repeats a common Trump claim that Clinton and other Democratic politicians conspired to create a “false narrative” that he received help from Russian allies to win the 2016 election. It comes over five years after Trump defeated Clinton in that election.
“Their far-reaching conspiracy was designed to cripple Trump’s bid for presidency by fabricating a scandal that would be used to trigger an unfounded federal investigation and ignite a media frenzy,” the lawsuit says.
The defendants in the 108-page complaint are a list of people regularly attacked by Trump throughout his presidency and in the years following his 2020 loss to Joe Biden, including the Democratic National Committee, former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI agent Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, former Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr and others.
“The deception, malice, and treachery perpetrated by the Defendants has caused significant harm to the American people, and to [Trump], and they must be held accountable for their heinous acts,” the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, claims.
Although Trump continues to rail against what he calls the “Russia hoax,” several investigations found Russia worked to hurt Clinton’s election chances using, among other things, WikiLeaks and collaborations with former political operative Paul Manafort. In 2019, the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into the matter found that Trump’s campaign was at times “receptive” to offers of help from Russian operatives.
Trump is seeking more than $72 million in damages, roughly three times the alleged cost of defending the former president against the accusations of colluding with Russia.