Former President Donald Trump included a laundry list of defendants in a lawsuit over claims that Russian collusion helped Trump win the 2016 election. The claims sparked a two-year-long U.S. investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. He released a report in 2019 that detailed numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. However, he did not charge any Trump associate with a criminal conspiracy.
“The Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts,” Mueller wrote in his report. Russia has denied interfering in the 2016 election.
Notable names in the lawsuit, filed Thursday in a federal court in Florida, include:
“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 lawsuit read. “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.”
Among the charges Trump levied in the Russian collusion claims lawsuit:
- Racketeering/conspiracy
- Injurious falsehood/conspiracy
- Malicious prosecution/conspiracy
- Violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
- Theft of trade secrets
- Violating the Stored Communications Act
“As a direct and proximate cause of the Defendants’ actions, Trump has sustained significant injuries and damages… which to date is in an amount no less than $24 million and continuing to accrue, as well as the loss of existing and future business opportunities,” the lawsuit said. “The Plaintiff does not claim nor seek any compensation for damage to his reputation, but rather, he seeks damages for the cost of dealing with the legal issues and political issues.”
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