President Trump Thursday filed a sprawling federal lawsuit against his former presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, along with the Democratic National Committee and a host of other names familiar to anyone who followed his tumultuous presidency, alleging that they all conspired to rig the 2016 election against him by maliciously connecting his campaign to Russia.The 108-page lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Florida, alleges that Mrs. Clinton, Democratic lawyers and three allied technology firms, officials at the Justice Department, and various unnamed “journalists, publishers, editors,” and “media companies” hatched a plot in 2015 — “one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” according to the filing — to discredit Mr. Trump by tying his campaign to Russia and its strongman leader, Vladimir Putin.“The Defendants, blinded by political ambition, orchestrated a malicious conspiracy to disseminate patently false and injurious information about Donald J. Trump and his campaign, all in the hopes of destroying his life, his political career and rigging the 2016 Presidential Election in favor of Hillary Clinton,” the lawsuit alleges.“The actions taken in furtherance of their scheme — falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources — are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison,” Mr. Trump’s lawyers wrote.The defendants are also accused of racketeering and “instigating a full-blown media frenzy,” committing “injurious falsehoods,” malicious prosecution, computer fraud and abuse, and theft of trade secrets. In addition, the suit accuses the defendants of violating federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations statutes.A Clinton spokesman reached by the Washington Post called the lawsuit “nonsense.”The complaint itself amounts to a full-throated recitation of accusations Mr. Trump has directed at Mrs. Clinton, Democrats, and FBI officials throughout his four years in office and during his post-presidency period.A former FBI director, James Comey, is mentioned 52 times in the lawsuit, in which he’s a defendant, and firms such as Fusion GPS — a Democratic research firm connected to an infamous dossier about alleged “salacious sexual activity” by Mr. Trump in a Moscow hotel — and Neustar Inc., a Virginia technology company, also figure prominently.Others listed as defendants include a former DNC director, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, and a former White House chief of staff, John Podesta, “The Defendants continue to spread their vicious lies to this day as they unabashedly publicize their thoroughly debunked falsehoods in an effort to ensure that [Mr. Trump] will never be elected again,” the lawsuit alleges.In the lawsuit, Mr. Trump claims he is not seeking any compensation for damages to his reputation, but rather damages for the “cost of dealing with the legal issues and political issues, which he was required to spend to redress the injurious falsities which were propounded by the Defendants” as well as the loss of existing and future business opportunities.As evidence of the business opportunities that have “evaporated” because of the defendants’ actions, Mr. Trump cites his banishment from Twitter and other social media platforms. Mr. Trump put the amount spent defending himself and his companies to date at $24 million, and said the number is accruing.
