Hillary Clinton, a former Democratic presidential candidate, is seeking a federal judge to order former President Trump to pay her legal fees in response to a lawsuit former President Trump filed saying she and others conspired to harm his 2016 campaign with claims of Russian collusion.
Trump’s lawsuit was dismissed by a federal trial court in September; the former president has appealed the decision. In a brief submitted on Monday, Clinton’s attorneys described the case as a political stunt that satisfied the requirements for the court to impose sanctions.
In response to many Defendants’ attempts to dismiss the case, Clinton’s counsel claimed that a reasonable attorney would never have initiated the lawsuit, much less continued to pursue it.
Trump filed the extensive civil lawsuit in March, alleging that Clinton, the DNC, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and more than a dozen other people orchestrated a nefarious plot to harm his chances of winning the presidency in 2016 by falsely claiming that his campaign colluded with Russia.
Sullivan is mentioned in the lawsuit given his role as Clinton’s principal foreign policy adviser during her campaign.
Trump has appealed to the 11th Circuit after a judge chosen by former President Bill Clinton dismissed the lawsuit in September after months of Clinton’s legal team claiming it was politically motivated.
According to federal law, a judge may order lawyers to pay additional costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees that were lawfully incurred as a result of their acts if they “unreasonably and vexatiously” increase court cases.
“Plaintiff’s suit was unwarranted on the facts, unsupported by the law and imposed substantial burdens both on Defendants and this Court. Despite being alerted to the many deficiencies in the initial Complaint by one round of motions to dismiss, Plaintiff and his counsel pressed forward on an Amended Complaint that fixed none of the problems,” Clinton’s attorneys insisted.
In a written statement, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba aggressively refuted Clinton’s claims and countered charges that the former presidential candidate filed the request for political reasons.
“This motion, conveniently filed one week prior to election day, is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to score political points. This motion is particularly inappropriate, given that our client’s case will soon be reviewed by the Eleventh Circuit. We will oppose this motion and trust that the Court will see through this ruse.”
