Donald Trump sues Hillary Clinton over 2016 collusion claims

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On Thursday, former US President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, leaders in the Democratic Party, and other individuals, for maliciously accusing him of colluding with Russia during the 2016 election.

The complaint that was filed in a Florida federal court said, "In the run-up to the 2016 Presidential Election, Hillary Clinton and her cohorts orchestrated an unthinkable plot –- one that shocks the conscience and is an affront to this nation's democracy," adding that "the Defendants maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative that their Republican opponent, Donald J. Trump, was colluding with a hostile foreign sovereignty."

The complaint added that they "worked together with a single, self-serving purpose: to vilify Donald J. Trump," and "actions taken in furtherance of their scheme -- falsifying evidence, deceiving law enforcement, and exploiting access to highly-sensitive data sources -- are so outrageous, subversive and incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison."

Other defendants include Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), former FBI director James Comey, a former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who wrote the controversial "Trump-Russian dossier" that includes alleged links between Trump and Russia.

Trump rejected several times accusations about the Steele dossier, and The New York Times determined there was no confirmed evidence to support the claims.

Former special counsel Robert Mueller investigated Russia's involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign and allegedly showed meetings between Russians and Trump advisors, with no evidence provided.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated Russia's noninvolvement in US 2016 election

Russian President Vladimir Putin denounced many times the allegations claiming his country's interference in the US elections.

In an interview aired in June 2018 by Austria's ORF broadcasting company, he asserted that the Russian government had nothing to do with the US election race in 2016.

In response to a question from The Associated Press (AP) in a meeting in St. Petersburg with international news agencies, Putin insisted, “We didn’t meddle, we aren’t meddling and we will not meddle in any elections."