Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Clinton over 2016 Russia allegations

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, saying the former Republican president's allegations that Democrats tried to rig that election by linking his campaign to Russia was an attempt to "flaunt" political grievances that did not belong in court.

In throwing out Trump's lawsuit Thursday night, 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 the former president's complaints.

"He is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him," Middlebrooks said in his ruling.

Trump in March had sued Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, and several other Democrats alleging "racketeering," a "conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood" and other claims in a 108-page lawsuit that echoed the long list of grievances he repeatedly aired during his four years in the White House after beating Clinton.

He had sought compensatory and punitive damages, saying he had incurred more than $24 million in "defense costs, legal fees, and related expenses."

In his ruling, Middlebrooks said Trump had waited too long to file his complaint by exceeding the legal statute of limitations for his claims and that he failed to make his case that he was harmed by any falsehoods, noting that many of the statements made by the defendants were "plainly protected by the First Amendment" of the U.S. Constitution.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/judge-dismisses-trump-lawsuit-against-124420268.html

[machoneman]

1. Lock him up! Lock him up! Hillary is laughing her you-know-what off by now.

[Bayard]

2. ROFL!

Hadn't heard of this one!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. This is the lawsuit filed by two lawyers whose offices are in shopping centers

TFG has trouble hiring top tier law firms. No top tier law firm would touch this piece of crap lawsuit. This piece of crap lawsuit is 193 pages and is a piece of crap

Link to tweet

[MissMillie]

3. I know a certain website that's going to blow up over this -- EDIT

They don't seem to have it yet.

Oh well. The "f*ck your feelings" crowd will have to get over this one.

(On edit: the judge was nominated by President Bill Clinton. Watch the accusations fly!)

[Chainfire]

5. I hope that Ms. Clinton goes after him for the cost of defending herself from a bogus suit.

Trump would love to see Hillary beat him in court.

[catbyte]

6. Benedict Donald must think Festivus happens every day.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. Judge throws out Trump's RICO lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and Democrats CNN Digital Expansion 20

This makes me smile

Link to tweet

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/09/politics/judge-throws-out-trumps-rico-lawsuit-against-hillary-clinton-and-democrats/index.html?utm_term=link&utm_content=2022-09-09T13%3A55%3A04&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twCNNp

A federal judge has dismissed former President Donald Trump's lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and more than two dozen other people and entities that he claims conspired to undermine his 2016 campaign by trying to vilify him with fabricated information tying him to Russia.

US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed the lawsuit Thursday, saying "most of Plaintiff's claims are not only unsupported by any legal authority but plainly foreclosed by binding precedent."
Trump filed his sprawling lawsuit in March, naming a wide cast of characters that Trump has accused for years of orchestrating a "deep state" conspiracy against him -- including former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials, the retired British spy Christopher Steele and his associates, and a handful of Clinton campaign advisers.

CNN has reached out to Trump attorney Alina Habba for comment.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

[SunSeeker]

8. He named Comey, who literally handed Trump victory by announcing he was investigating Clinton!

Comey's infamous "October Surprise" letter saying he was investigating Hillary again--just days before the election and while voting was underway, cost Hillary several points in the polls, all the while never announcing that he was also investigating Trump over Russia helping Trump against Hillary. That was just enough to hand a narrow win to Trump in the swing states and thus in the electoral college.

[Novara]

9. 20-fucking-16

Jeebus fucking hell, get over it already.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but "dismissed with prejudice" can sometimes result in the plaintiffs having to pay court costs, right?

[not fooled]

10. Little Lord Flauntleroy

"He is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him," Middlebrooks said in his ruling.

[link:|]

red don can't get over it...red don is mentally ill...great job picking an idol to worship, maggots!

[question everything]

11. Just curious: who appointed Judge Middlebrook?

[onenote]

19. Bill Clinton.

Trump filed a motion requesting Middlebrook recuse himself from hearing the case, but Middlebrook rejected it.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Trump presented his Russia hoax theory to a court. It went poorly.

TFG has been pushing the bizarre theory that Russia never tried to influence the 2016 election. This theory has no basis in reality, but TFG cannot accept the concept that he did not win 2016 on his own merits. It is clear that in the real world, Putin got TFG elected and TFG cannot accept reality

The lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Clinton campaign and 30+ defendants was so bad that it was impossible to read. Again, this lawsuit was drafted by two lawyers whose offices are in shopping centers and these idiots just put down TFG's craze ravings as facts. i loved the opinion that came down today that rejected TFG's crazed beliefs about Russian and the 2016 election.

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/09/09/trump-2016-russia-clinton/

One of the hallmarks of Donald Trump’s tenure in American politics has been the extent to which he remained cocooned in his own world.....

And then, earlier this year, a change. Trump proudly removed his Russia theory from its home and presented it to the court, like a kid digging up a dandelion he’d been watching in his yard and offering it as a horticulture contender at the state fair. The verdict, offered in a filing on Thursday, was probably not what Trump would have hoped.

Suffice it to say, he did not earn a blue ribbon.

The background here is interesting, by the way. Trump presented his grand Russia hoax conspiracy in the form of a lawsuit, alleging that Hillary Clinton and others — FBI officials, attorneys, IT guys — had conspired against him in violation of racketeering statutes (a.k.a. RICO). The suit was filed in a specific courthouse in the Southern District of Florida, apparently with the hope that it would be heard by a particular judge that Trump himself had appointed......

In short, the theory that flourished in Trump’s friendly ecosystem was that the Russia probe was a function of explicit dishonesty on the part of Clinton: that her allies sought to create a dossier of false reports about Trump and Russia and that they used stolen data to suggest a link between Trump’s business and a Russian bank......

The judge made very clear that he understood Trump’s suit for what it obviously is.

“At its core, the problem with Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint is that Plaintiff is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm,” he wrote. “ … 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.”

TFG's had no facts to support his claims and the court had no problem rejecting TFG's rants. Now it is time to sanction TFG and his shopping center lawyers for wasting the court's time on TFG's bizarre theory

[IcyPeas]

13. "He is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances ....

"He is seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him," Middlebrooks said in his ruling.

It just occurred to me he must have this boilerplate lawsuit document that he submits to lawyers and courts and just changes the names and a few other things all containing the same old 199 pages of grievances. the same grievances that he keeps talking about at his rallies. the same shit over and over and over and over.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

14. For this thread

Link to tweet

[Collimator]

15. Let me try to understand this. . .

. . . The guy is making a fuss and claiming that someone undermined an election that he won? No wonder he is psychologically unable to cope with losing an election.

I honestly didn't think that he had it in him to find a lower level of pathetic, but, gosh darn it, he did. At least he's a high achiever in that one area.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

16. Donald Trump's failed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton could get his lawyers in trouble

TFG can not get top tier firms to take his cases. This lawsuit was filed by two lawyers who office in shopping centers. I read the original petition and it was dreck. This lawsuit was so bad that the attorneys who filed it are looking at sanctions

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/how-do-donald-trump-s-lawsuits-keep-getting-crazier-n1298841?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Donald Trump lost in his fight against Hillary Clinton. No, this is not the opening scene of an alternative reality show in which the audience steps back in time and Clinton wins the 2016 presidential election. It is the final scene of a fight that ended Thursday when federal Judge Donald Middlebrooks threw out a lawsuit former President Trump filed against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling Trump’s filing “difficult to summarize in a concise and cohesive manner.” In fact, that was perhaps the kindest thing one can say about Trump’s lawsuit......

Middlebrooks’ damning assessment of the filing is the federal judicial equivalent of a teacher grading a student’s paper with the remark, “I don’t even know what you’re saying and I can’t believe you made me read it.”

In lieu of winning legal arguments, Trump likes to make political arguments in court. He must believe it gives his preposterous lies the veneer of legitimacy to make them there. But just like his post-election litigation strategy, Trump’s suit against Clinton was always doomed to fail because it was supported by neither law nor facts. Middlebrooks correctly noted that Trump’s suit read as a “political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him,” rather than a proper court filing......

Possessing neither a coherent legal theory nor facts to support such a theory is fatal to a legal case. Trump must have known this. And yet he brought the case anyway. Because shouting on a website or a faux campaign rally is one thing, but shouting in a courtroom can still give the imprimatur of legitimacy. Judge Middlebrooks, luckily, was having none of this nonsense. And neither should we.

The only people who should potentially face legal repercussions from his suit are the ones who filed it. Attorneys are bound by rules of professional conduct which prohibit them from filing frivolous suits, including political manifestos. Judge Middlebrooks appeared to find as much when he noted that lawyers must certify to the court that, to the best of their knowledge, the claims they are making are “warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument” to change the law and that “the factual contentions have evidentiary support[.]”

[Brainfodder]

17. Deflect much?

Racketeering had me

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. Great news! Hillary just got the last word on Trump again...

Link to tweet