On Friday, President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reopen his dismissed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, reviving claims that she and other adversaries tried to tie his 2016 campaign to Russia.
The latest filing comes after a federal judge dismissed the case and ordered Trump and his former attorney, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions. A federal appeals court upheld both rulings last year.
Sanctions Drive the Appeal
In Friday’s filing, Trump’s attorneys argued the lower courts wrongly punished them for pursuing legitimate legal claims, Reuters reported.
The filing cites “a deeply troubling trend of federal courts using sanctions and disciplinary threats to punish the president and his lawyers.”
At the time of writing, the lawsuit was listed on the Supreme Court’s online docket, but the reported filing had not yet appeared.
The latest available document was an August application seeking more time to file the appeal. Justice Clarence Thomas approved the request, extending the deadline to Friday, Oct. 9.
The White House did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.
Appeal Follows Trump’s Remarks on Rivals
Earlier this week, Trump said he could have taken actions against Clinton and former presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama while in office but refrained out of respect for the presidency.
He made the comments to reporters while discussing the possibility of facing another impeachment if Democrats regain control of Congress.
Clinton, meanwhile, has turned her attention to the midterms, which will decide control of Congress. On Wednesday, she urged Americans to prepare after the Trump administration declined to invite election observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, a regional security body.
A 2022 Lawsuit and Swift Dismissal
Trump sued in 2022, naming Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey and the Democratic National Committee, among others. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed the case in September of the same year, finding the claims legally insufficient and partly untimely.
In his dismissal order, he called the suit a “two-hundred-page political manifesto.”
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal and sanctions in 2025. The unanimous panel, which included Trump appointee Andrew Brasher, found many arguments “frivolous.”
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Image via Shutterstock
Recent Comments