Trump takes 2016 Russia election lawsuit against Hillary Clinton to supreme court
WASHINGTON, DC: President Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to revive his dismissed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and other political adversaries, accusing them of conspiring to undermine his 2016 presidential campaign by linking it to Russia.
The appeal, filed on Friday, October 9, challenges lower-court rulings that rejected the case and imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions on Trump and his former attorney, Alina Habba. Trump’s lawyers argue the courts wrongly penalised them for bringing the claims and should have accounted for his decision to postpone the lawsuit while serving as president.
Trump challenges dismissal, says presidential duties justified delay
Trump first filed the lawsuit in 2022 against Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and numerous other individuals and organisations. The president alleged that they conspired to damage his 2016 presidential campaign by promoting what he called a false narrative connecting his campaign to Russia.
The lawsuit included civil racketeering allegations and claims of conspiracy to commit injurious falsehood. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed the case at the time, finding its claims were legally insufficient and that some were filed after the applicable deadlines.
In his Supreme Court appeal now, Trump’s lawyers have argued that the time limit should have been extended because he chose not to pursue a civil lawsuit while carrying out his presidential responsibilities.
Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to revive his lawsuit against Hillary Clinton over the 2016 election. The request seeks review of the case at the nation’s highest court; it is a petition, not a Supreme Court ruling or a decision to hear the lawsuit. Related reporting indicates Trump has also sought more time to file the petition. The legal effort remains pending.
— Cool X Media Group (@teslamillion) October 10, 2026
“Faced with this conspiracy during his term, President Trump concluded that any private civil lawsuit would consume substantial time and energy and that any civil suit should therefore be postponed until after his term,” his attorneys wrote in the filing.
The lawyers also argued that the lower courts improperly treated their legal arguments as evidence of bad faith and imposed sanctions for claims they considered legitimate. “The court’s intervention is necessary to protect the presidency, and to prevent judicial disagreement from becoming a license to punish its advocates,” the filing stated. The Supreme Court must first decide whether to take up the case. Its decision on whether to hear the appeal is expected later this year.
Courts previously called claims ‘frivolous’ and ordered sanctions
Along with dismissing the case, Middlebrooks later ordered Trump and Habba to pay nearly $1 million in legal fees and costs. The judge criticised the case as an attempt to use litigation to advance political grievances and described it as a “two-hundred-page political manifesto.”
“This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start,” Middlebrooks wrote. “No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.”
The Atlanta-based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal and sanctions in 2025. Its unanimous three-judge panel, which included a Trump-appointed judge, found that many of the arguments advanced by Trump and Habba were “frivolous.” Trump has repeatedly described the Russia investigation as a “hoax” and denied wrongdoing.
