Left: Former U.S. President Donald Trump spoke during a campaign rally at Legacy Sports USA on October 9, 2022, in Mesa, Arizona (Mario Tama/Getty Images). Right: Hillary Clinton attended an event on September 10, 2022, in Toronto, Ontario (Amy Sussman/Getty Images).
A federal court of appeals on Friday gave former president Donald Trump more time to file a key document in an effort to resuscitate his failed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton in which he accuses her, and several others, of rigging the 2016 presidential election against him.
In March 2022, Trump filed a massive racketeering (RICO) lawsuit against Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., former FBI director James Comey, and other named defendants. The original petition alleged a conspiracy in which the parties worked toward “a nefarious scheme to discredit, delegitimize and defame” the then-first time candidate Trump.
Now, in the waning days of his third bid for public office, the underlying lawsuit is long-since dead and gone – dismissed as “frivolous” and “hyperbole” by a district court in Florida in September 2022 – but remains on appellate life support in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In a terse order, Trump-appointed U.S. Circuit Judge Kevin C. Newsom gave Trump an opportunity to stretch the process a bit further – and to opine about the issues at stake in the appeal at length.
“Appellants’ unopposed motion to exceed the word limitation in their consolidated reply brief and to enlarge the time to file that brief is GRANTED,” the judge’s order reads. “The consolidated reply brief, which may not exceed 10,000 words, is due by September 27, 2024.”
In late August, Trump asked Clinton’s counsel for consent in order to obtain the since-granted extension – citing “pressing hearings occurring in other cases.” The original deadline was Aug. 30. The original word limit, under court rules, was 6,500 words.
At first, Clinton and others opposed the motion.
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“No good cause is set forth for this third extension,” the appellees wrote in opposition to the 45th president’s request. “You assert that your request is occasioned by ‘pressing hearings occurring in other cases,’ but you do not specify what proceedings might be occurring in the month of August to justify further delay or state why your entire team is unable to complete a reply brief.”
Days later, Trump’s attorneys responded – listing several different cases in various jurisdictions throughout the country that the various parties and attorneys were involved in.
“The interests of justice and judicial economy will be served by permitting this extension of time in the context of the multiple consolidated appeals,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “Appellants’ counsel conferred with Appellees’ counsel regarding the relief sought in this motion and all Appellees oppose this extension request.
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But apparently the detailed plea for more time – and more words to make their case; though this was not really at issue – was convincing.
Later that same day, Clinton acquiesced to the request she previously pilloried as yet again “delayed” after several such delays.
“On the basis of the representations Appellants make in their present motion, Appellee Clinton does not oppose the present extension request,” the former first lady’s attorneys wrote.
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In February, Trump brought his case to the 11th Circuit – arguing that he was never given the opportunity to properly cure any defects in his original lawsuit when it was dismissed.
The former president also argued that he should be allowed to essentially ignore the statute of limitations – making a bid for various forms of tolling based on equitable considerations due to his time in the White House and a particular statute. Tolling is the process by which a time clock for filing a given document is paused for one reason or another.
In June, Clinton’s attorneys lambasted those arguments – saying that Trump was trying to rewrite an “imported” provision of inapplicable law and then “misapply the invented law,”
Trump was previously ordered to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions for the lawsuit against Clinton.
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