A federal judge in Florida dismissed former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against his one-time election opponent Hillary Clinton, saying there was no basis to his claim that the former secretary of state and her allies conspired to undermine his campaign by accusing him of colluding with Russia. 

What You Need To Know

  • A federal judge in Florida dismissed former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against his one-time election opponent Hillary Clinton

  • Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida said there was no basis to his claim that the former secretary of state and her allies conspired to undermine his campaign by accusing him of colluding with Russia

  • The judge accused Trump of not “attempting to seek redress for any legal harm,” but rather is “seeking to flaunt a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him"

  • A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report did identify certain flaws by the FBI during the Russia investigation, but did not find evidence that the bureau’s leaders were motivated by political bias in opening the probe

Judge Donald Middlebrooks of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida wrote in his ruling Thursday that “most of Plaintiff's claims are not only unsupported by any legal authority but plainly foreclosed by binding precedent.”

The case, which was filed in March, also listed the Democratic National Committee, former FBI Director James Comey, additional former top FBI officials and several others as defendants. The suit said that they “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative.” 

In his scathing ruling, Judge Middlebrooks accused Trump of not “attempting to seek redress for any legal harm,” but rather 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,” Middlebrooks continued, adding that the suit had “glaring structural deficiencies” in Trump’s argument and that many of the events characterized in the suit are “implausible.”

“Such pleadings waste judicial resources and are an unacceptable form of establishing a claim for relief,” he wrote, adding: “What the Amended Complaint lacks in substance and legal support it seeks to substitute with length, hyperbole, and the settling of scores and grievances.”

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said that they “vehemently disagree” with the judge’s decision and will “immediately move to appeal.”

"Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, but it also 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 wrote.

A 2019 Justice Department inspector general report did identify certain flaws by the FBI during the Russia investigation, but did not find evidence that the bureau’s leaders were motivated by political bias in opening the probe.