President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, Oct. 9, to revive his dismissed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, his 2016 Democratic rival, accusing her and other adversaries of conspiring to rig that election by linking his campaign to Russia.
The appeal followed a dismissal by U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump and his lead attorney Alina Habba for bringing what he called a “frivolous” suit intended to advance a political narrative. The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal and sanctions in 2025, stating many of their legal arguments were indeed frivolous.
Trump filed the lengthy complaint in federal court in Florida in 2022, when he was out of office after losing the 2020 election. It named Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, the Democratic National Committee and numerous others, alleging they conspired to discredit him with a false narrative of collusion with Russia and asserting claims including racketeering and conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood.
Trump defeated Clinton in 2016 despite losing the national popular vote and served from 2017 to 2021. A 2019 report by special counsel Robert Mueller stated Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion but did not establish that Trump campaign members conspired with the Russian government. A 2023 report by special counsel John Durham concluded the FBI lacked “actual evidence” to investigate the 2016 Trump campaign.