Trump takes suit against Hillary Clinton over 2016 election to Supreme Court

In 2016, Donald Trump, the then U.S. President, filed a lawsuit against his Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, alleging a conspiracy to rig the election by linking his campaign to Russia. The case was dismissed by a federal judge, who imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump and his lawyer for bringing a frivolous suit.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal and sanctions in 2025. Trump's lawyers argued that the lower courts' decisions were a troubling trend of federal courts using sanctions to punish the president and his lawyers for legitimate legal positions. They claimed the courts' rejection of their arguments was erroneous.

Trump's lawsuit alleged that Clinton and her allies conspired to discredit him with false narratives about Russia collusion. Despite losing both the popular vote and the 2020 election, Trump continued to claim widespread voting fraud. The investigation by former FBI director Robert Mueller found that Russia did interfere in the 2016 election but did not establish a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.