Hillary Clinton Takes Decisive Action To Stop Lawsuit From Trump

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Hillary Clinton has, through her legal team, moved to get racketeering claims against her from former President Donald Trump dismissed. Trump filed a sprawling lawsuit alleging a criminal conspiracy on the part of Clinton and numerous other prominent Democrats over their investigations into and spotlighting of his and his team’s wide-ranging ties to Russia. As summarized by POLITICO, Trump’s lawsuit accuses Clinton, “her political allies and various government officials of a racketeering conspiracy to propagate false claims about Trump and Russia in connection with the 2016 presidential race.” Now, in a response filing, Clinton’s lawyers have torn into the Trump case, alleging as also summarized by POLITICO that it possesses no legal merit whatsoever and is instead meant to garner attention.

As Clinton attorney David Kendall put it, “Whatever the utility of [Trump’s] Complaint as a fundraising tool, a press release, or a list of political grievances, it has no merit as a lawsuit, and should be dismissed with prejudice.” Dismissing the matter with prejudice would mean Trump couldn’t later re-file these claims in some distinct but related form to try and keep the case going after losing. The push from Clinton and her lawyers to get Trump’s claims against her dismissed would not entirely end the lawsuit if successful, because it only applies to her part of the case — but other defendants (who range from former Democratic National Committee chair and Florida Democrat Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok) could move for similar court action.

Apart from the lack of merit to Trump’s foundational claims, Clinton’s side argues that the former president’s case flouts the relevant statutes of limitations for the offenses that Trump (ridiculously) alleges unfolded. According to Clinton’s side’s argument, no statute of limitations for an offense Trump points to is longer than four years — but it’s been longer than that since 2017, when claims about Trump and Russia had long since been made. As Clinton’s team put it, “Notwithstanding his rousing, all-caps call to action, [Trump] waited four years, four months, and twenty-four days before filing suit… His delay renders each of his claims untimely… At most, Plaintiff alleges that other entities sought to further Clinton’s candidacy and, after the election, politically opposed Plaintiff’s administration… This is conduct plainly protected by the First Amendment, and there is nothing unlawful about engagement in political activity.”

Trump has, of course, consistently gone after those who’ve attempted or are attempting to hold him accountable in some form. This past Easter Sunday, he issued a frankly embarrassing message targeting New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who’s investigating his business. “Happy Easter to failed gubernatorial candidate and racist Attorney General Letitia James,” he ranted. “May she remain healthy despite the fact that she will continue to drive business out of New York while at the same time keeping crime, death, and destruction in New York!” What a clown. While Trump engages himself with whatever on earth that is, Clinton has occupied herself with causes such as pushing for support for Ukraine amid their fight to beat back Russian aggression. As she remarked, the “only way that we’re going to end the bloodshed and the terror that we’re seeing unleashed in Ukraine and protect Europe and democracy is to do everything we can to impose even greater costs on Putin.”