President Donald Trump wants to add another one of his personal cases to the Supreme Court’s docket: his bid to revive a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others, stemming from his complaint that ahead of the 2016 election, she conspired to “weave a false narrative” that his campaign colluded with Russia.
A conservative appeals court upheld a ruling that rejected his suit and imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions against him and 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. He said so in a filing seeking an extension of time to petition the high court. Justice Clarence Thomas, who fields such routine administrative requests from the circuit that ruled against Trump, granted the extension request Wednesday, giving the president until Sept. 9 to file his petition. It takes four justices to grant review of a petition.
In the extension motion, Trump’s lawyers said his forthcoming petition will raise “exceptionally important” issues. They said the appellate ruling and imposition of sanctions “carries with it profound impact on the Presidency, and the nation as a whole.”
This is only the latest of the president’s personal cases to hit the high court docket. Just this week, he filed his second petition seeking to reverse the millions of dollars in damages won by E. Jean Carroll, the writer he was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming. Last month, the justices declined to review an earlier petition he brought in a separate but related Carroll case, which he is attempting to get them to reconsider taking as well.
Trump is also trying to get the justices to revive a defamation lawsuit he filed against CNN over the network’s use of the phrase “big lie” to describe his claims about the 2020 election. Like the 2016 election-related case, he’s been losing that 2020 election-related case at the hands of conservative judges in the lower courts and wants the high court to intervene. His petition in the CNN case is due Aug. 14 after his latest extension request, also granted by Thomas.
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