The lawsuit he wants to revive, initially dismissed by a federal judge in 2023, accuses Clinton and others of conspiring to sabotage his campaign by promoting claims about alleged ties with Russia
Credit: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty; Dominik Bindl/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- President Donald Trump indicated this week that he intends to ask the Supreme Court to resurrect his years-old lawsuit against his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton
- The lawsuit, initially dismissed by a federal judge in 2023, accuses Clinton and others of conspiring to sabotage his campaign by promoting claims about alleged ties with Russia
- On Tuesday, July 28, Trump’s lawyers filed a petition to the Supreme Court to give him extra time to make his case after a federal appeals court upheld its dismissal in November 2025
President Donald Trump indicated this week that he intends to ask the Supreme Court to resurrect his years-old lawsuit accusing his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and others of conspiring to sabotage his campaign by promoting claims about alleged ties with Russia.
On Tuesday, July 28, Trump’s lawyers filed a request to the Supreme Court to give him extra time to make his case after a federal appeals court declined to reverse the lawsuit’s dismissal. A three-judge panel, including one judge appointed by Trump, ruled in November 2025 that the lawsuit was “frivolous” and upheld a $1 million penalty that a federal judge levied against Trump and one of his lawyers in 2023.
“President Trump is committed to holding all those who commit wrongdoing, including trafficking in lies, deception, and fake news accountable for their reckless and politically motivated efforts to attack him and the MAGA movement,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Bloomberg in a statement on Wednesday, July 29.
Clinton’s lawyer, David Kendall, declined to comment to PEOPLE on Thursday, July 30, and a spokesperson for Clinton’s office did not immediately respond.
Credit: SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty
Trump had initially sought $70 million in damages, but U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks ordered the then-former president to pay $1 million in sanctions in 2023 after writing the case “should never have been brought.”
“Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it,” Middlebrooks wrote in 2023. “Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”
The president has increasingly expressed frustration with the Supreme Court after rulings that gutted his tariff agenda and pushed back on his bid to end birthright citizenship. Trump appointed three of the court’s nine current justices in his first term.
“Does anybody have any idea how much Money and Prestige the United States Supreme Court has cost our Nation with their negative Rulings on Birthright Citizenship and TARIFFS?” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. “The answer, TRILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS!”
Credit: Win McNamee/Getty
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer.
Also this week, Trump asked the Supreme Court to bail him out of the nearly $84 million he still owes writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of sexually abusing her in the 1990s.
Trump’s lawyers argued the 2024 Supreme Court decision granting presidents immunity for actions taken in office meant that the president can’t be held liable for a New York civil jury’s decision in 2024 that he defamed Carroll.
Read the full article here
