Left: Then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, right, speaks as then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump listens during the second presidential debate in St. Louis, Oct. 9, 2016 (Rick T. Wilking/Pool via AP, File). Right: U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas answers questions during a visit to the University of Texas at Austin, in Austin, Texas, Wednesday, April 15, 2026 (AP Photo/Eric Gay).
Donald Trump won't quit trying to breathe new life into his RICO lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, even after years of resounding losses across the board and million-dollar sanctions. Supreme Court review remains a long shot, but the president's lawyers have at least bought themselves more breathing room.
Trump lawyers Alejandro Brito and Richard C. Klugh last week submitted an application to Justice Clarence Thomas, asking him for one month of extra time to a file a petition for a writ of certiorari convincing enough to catch the justice's eye.
Thomas, the justice assigned to handle applications like this one within the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, responded on Wednesday by granting an extension until Sept. 9. The deadline to file had been Aug. 10.
Trump's legal team claimed to have "good cause" for an extension to flesh out "exceptionally important" questions about a "series of fundamental legal errors by the district court and the court of appeals," including the upholding of "extreme sanctions."
"The Eleventh Circuit concluded, in error and without reaching the merits of the claims stated by the President, 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 appropriate for the filing of the complaint," the filing said.
Brito, Trump's lead attorney in many Florida federal lawsuits against the media, also filed the president's lawsuit against the IRS, leading a judge to refer him to the bar.
In doing so, the judge cited the Trump v. Clinton lawsuit multiple times as an example of the president bringing a lawsuit within the Southern District of Florida "in bad faith," and "for the improper purpose of dishonestly advancing a political narrative."
"As was observed in another matter brought in this District, 'this case is part of Mr. Trump's pattern of misusing the courts to serve political purposes,'" U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said, referencing the Trump v. Clinton case directly.
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, the jurist who tossed out the RICO case, went so far as to call Trump the "mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process."
In 2022, the judge summarized that "[t]hirty-one individuals and organizations" tied to Democrats "were summoned to court, forced to hire lawyers to defend against frivolous claims," adding that the "only common thread against them was Mr. Trump's animus."
And since that time, the 11th Circuit has done nothing to disturb the dismissal nor the roughly $1 million in sanctions Middlebrooks ordered against Alina Habba, the firm Habba Madaio & Associates, and Trump himself for bringing a "lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose."
As recently as May, the 11th Circuit completely rejected Trump's request for a rehearing by the full — en banc — court.
Trump appointed half of the active 11th Circuit appellate judges, and not one of those judges was interested in an en banc rehearing in this case, which broadly accused Democrats of conspiring to bankroll "an unthinkable plot" to tar the 2016 Trump campaign, cloud his first term through "a sinister link" to Russia, and harm his business interests.