Hillary Clinton filed a motion on Wednesday seeking to dismiss former President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against her as having “no merit”.
What’s making headlines: Trump sued Clinton and dozens of others last month, accusing them of conspiring to accuse him of colluding with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s lawsuit claimed that Clinton, her campaign, the Democratic National Committee, former FBI Director James Comey, and others “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative” that he was “colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty” in order to “cripple Trump’s bid for the presidency.”
He eventually won the presidential election in 2016.
The big picture: “Whatever the utility of Plaintiff’s Complaint as a fundraising tool, a press release, or a list of political grievances, it has no merit as a lawsuit, and should be dismissed with prejudice,” David Kendall, Clinton’s attorney, wrote in the motion.
According to Politico, which broke the story first, dismissing the lawsuit “with prejudice” would prevent Trump from reformulating it and simply re-filing it.
While Clinton’s motion cannot stop the entire case, other defendants may join her in seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, according to Washington Post. The motion contends that because Trump waited years to file the lawsuit, the statute of limitations for Trump’s claims against her has run out.
“Notwithstanding his rousing, all-caps call to action, Plaintiff waited four years, four months, and twenty-four days before filing suit,” Kendall wrote in the motion. “His delay renders each of his claims untimely.”
The bottom line: “Even where the Plaintiff’s claims are timely, they are still meritless,” the motion reads.
“To be clear, Clinton vigorously disputes the allegations in the Complaint. But even taking those allegations as true, Plaintiff fails to plead any cognizable legal causes of action.”
