(Bloomberg) — Hillary Clinton brushed off Donald Trump’s amended lawsuit accusing her and others of conspiring to undermine his presidency with claims of Russian collusion as a “swollen” political manifesto devoid of facts.
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The revised suit “alleges a series of disconnected political disputes” that Trump has “alchemized into a sweeping conspiracy” by his foes, according to a motion to dismiss filed Thursday by Clinton, her 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta and former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others.
Trump “improbably” ties Clinton to former FBI director James Comey, a Republican who publicly announced the reopening of a probe into Clinton’s emails 11 days before the 2016 election, undermining her campaign; as well as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a Trump appointee. Comey and Rosenstein are both defendants in the suit, first filed in March.
“All that links these disparate people and events is plaintiff’s antipathy toward them,” Clinton’s attorney David E. Kendall wrote. “This is a president who doesn’t just list his enemies; he sues them.”
Trump’s suit, filed under the civil version of a racketeering law normally used against organized crime, accuses more than two dozen defendants of plotting against him and falsely accusing his 2016 election campaign of having ties to Russia. Trump amended the suit in June to include new details gleaned from Special Counsel John Durham’s failed prosecution of longtime Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was accused of lying to the FBI while providing a Trump-Russia tip just before the 2016 election.
Read More: Trump Seeks to Turn Durham Case Bust Into Clinton Lawsuit Boon
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, declined to comment on the filing. She has previously said the evidence against Clinton and the other defendants is overwhelming, and expressed confidence Trump will prevail.
The motion to dismiss will be decided by US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the bench by Bill Clinton. Middlebrooks in April rejected Trump’s request that the judge disqualify himself from the case.
Separately on Thursday, the US Justice Department moved to spare Comey and his successor, Andrew McCabe, from the suit — an effort that could see some of Trump’s biggest foes booted from the case.
Comey and McCabe, as well as former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, must be dismissed from the suit as all of the former FBI employees are protected by a federal statute, known as the Westfall Act, barring claims against government workers that relate to their official duties, the Justice Department said in a court filing.
If the government succeeds, Trump’s claims against Clinton and the other defendants can still go forward.
The DOJ filing isn’t Trump’s first encounter with the Westfall Act. He is currently trying to use the statute to win dismissal of a defamation suit filed against him by New York advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who claims the former president raped her two decades ago and defamed her in 2019 when he denied it happened.
The case is Trump v. Clinton, 22-cv-14102, US District Court, Southern District of Florida.
(Updates with Trump’s lawyer declining to comment in sixth paragraph and context on judge in seventh.)
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