Donald Trump is no longer president but he is still the “king of frivolous lawsuits,” and his latest appears to be an exercise in retaining his title – at least one of them.
“In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot — one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” the RICO lawsuit says, according to the New York Post.
Trump lists a huge number of defendants including Clinton, the DNC, Marc Elias, Fusion GPS, former FBI Director James Comey, and many others.
“Acting in concert, the defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty,” it claims, in an apparent attempt to get a court to side with his “fictive” “no collusion” claims.
“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 Watergate [scandal] pale in comparison.”
NBC News and MSNBC legal contributor and MSNBC and Peacock anchor and host Katie S. Phang sums up the legal argument: “Unbelievable waste of time.”
Reuters’ legal correspondent Jan Wolfe posts a link to the lawsuit, a copy of the typo-ridden front page, and a fact check that effectively moots the case:
A former federal prosecutor and noted attorney, Ken White, via his Popehat Twitter account:
“It’s difficult to put into words just how deeply flawed and utterly hopeless this lawsuit is,” says CNN Senior Legal Analyst, former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig.
Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski notes Trump “should know by now that countersuits and discovery can result in unintended, painful consequences.”
Condé Nast Legal Affairs Editor Luke Zaleski: