Donald Trump’s personal lawyers want more time to file their Supreme Court petition against Hillary Clinton in the president’s bid to revive his claim that she and others conspired to “weave a false narrative” that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
A conservative appeals court upheld a ruling that rejected Trump’s suit and imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions against him, Alina Habba and her law firm. The appellate panel noted that “[m]any of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous.”
Trump wants the justices to reverse that ruling, but his lawyers want more time to file their petition to the justices. They already asked for and received an extension until Sept. 9 from Justice Clarence Thomas, who is assigned to field such requests from that appeals court.
In a new request to Thomas this week, they want another extension that would make the petition due Oct. 9.
“Because of the press of urgent business by the lead Petitioner, President of the United States, along with the need for counsel to confer with Petitioners regarding the content and scope of the petition, and the conflicting schedule demands of Petitioners’ counsel, granting additional time will greatly serve the interest of justice, assist in preparing a clear, concise, and comprehensive petition for certiorari for the Court’s review, and reduce any interruption of the work of the President in his fulltime and vital role as Chief Executive,” Trump’s lawyers said in the latest extension request.
Among the pressing business they cited in support of their request were other cases in which they represent Trump, such as in his recently filed petition seeking to revive his defamation case against CNN regarding the 2020 election. The justices have not yet decided whether they will review that petition. It takes four justices on the nine-member bench to agree to do so.
Extension requests are routinely made and granted, and they are unlikely to affect whether the justices grant review of a petition. The upshot of the latest request, if granted, would therefore likely be that the court’s ultimate decision of whether to grant review would be pushed back slightly further into the fall or early winter, though the justices are not on a deadline to decide whether to grant review.
In their latest request, Trump’s lawyers reiterated their position that the case “involves a series of fundamental legal errors by the district court and the court of appeals, which underlie the dismissal of President Trump’s civil RICO [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] and injurious falsehood claims, as well as an improper imposition of extreme sanctions on Petitioners for having filed the civil complaint.”
They said the appeals court erroneously concluded “that each of those claims was filed after expiration of the applicable statute of limitations, and that an award of more than $1 million in sanctions was therefore appropriate for the filing of the complaint.”
The lawyers said they plan to present the justices with “substantial questions regarding the applicable statute of limitations tolling provisions for civil RICO claims, and the determination of tolling principles applicable to the President of the United States.”
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