© KEYSTONE/AP/Alex Brandon
Former US President Donald Trump on Thursday filed a complaint against Hillary Clinton and Democratic Party leaders, saying they wrongly accused him of collusion with Russia ahead of the 2016 election. The complaint also targets the former director of the FBI.
“In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton and her aides orchestrated an unthinkable plan, a shocking plan that is an affront to this nation’s democracy,” the lawsuit filed in Florida said.
“Acting in concert, the defendants maliciously conspired to build a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald Trump, was in collusion with a hostile foreign country.”
“The actions taken under their plan – tampering with evidence, deceiving law enforcement and using access to highly sensitive data sources are so outrageous, subversive and inflammatory that even the events of Watergate make pales in comparison,” the complaint continues, referring to the scandal that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon in 1974.
$72 million requested
Apart from Hillary Clinton, the defendants include John Podesta, her former campaign manager, and James Comey, former FBI director. The list also includes ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who had, before the election, written a dossier supposed to contain compromising information for Donald Trump.
The Republican billionaire had repeatedly argued that the Steele dossier was “false”. The New York Times had established that there was no evidence to back up many of his claims.
A Russian analyst, who was one of Christopher Steele’s sources, has since been charged with perjury in the United States. He is accused of lying to federal investigators working on the case.
Donald Trump is seeking at least $72 million in damages.
Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller had investigated possible Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, revealing several meetings between Russians and advisers of the Republican candidate. But he said he had not gathered evidence of a plot between Moscow and his campaign team.