Donald Trump was photographed June 17, 2022 in Nashville; Hillary Clinton was seen May 2, 2022 in New York City.
A federal judge on Thursday declined to dismiss a sprawling RICO lawsuit filed by Donald Trump against a long list of his alleged foes — including then-rival candidate Hillary Clinton — in connection with the November 2016 presidential election.
The refusal is somewhat academic. U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks decided that Trump’s decision to file an amended complaint on Tuesday stymied a long list of motions to dismiss filed in response to the original complaint. However, Judge Middlebrooks openly suggested that the defendants could refile their many motions to dismiss after taking into account new arguments pressed by Trump in the amended complaint.
“On June 21, 2022, Plaintiff Donald J. Trump filed an Amended Complaint,” Middlebrooks wrote. “In light of the Amended Complaint, Defendants’ currently pending Motions to Dismiss . . . are DENIED AS MOOT.”
The blanket denial involved motions to dismiss filed by Clinton; John Podesta; Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, and Peter Fritsch; the Democratic National Committee, DNC Services Corporation, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz; Perkins Coie LLP; Nellie Ohr; Robert E. Mook; Michael Sussmann; Marc Elias; HFACC, Inc.; Rodney Joffe; Igor Danchenko; Neustar, Inc.; Charles Halliday Dolan Jr.; and Jake Sullivan.
Those motions, when viewed from afar and boiled down to a brief summary of their contents, generally argues that Trump’s claims were barred by a statute of limitations or otherwise failed as a matter of law.
Trump’s attorneys said they would attempt to cure their case to override those arguments and made good on that promise by filing this week’s amended complaint — which…
