Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee fabricated the biggest and most scandalous political hoax in American history in 2016. It had far-reaching consequences well beyond negative news coverage of Donald Trump over his supposed “collusion” with Russia to win the White House. Yes, Trump won in spite of Clinton’s efforts, but her lies and conspiracy with the American intelligence community undermined his entire presidency and created national security problems for the United States. Now, Trump has filed a lawsuit against Clinton, the DNC, and several others who “orchestrated an unthinkable plot,” and he seeks some semblance of justice.

Trump wants a jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The 108-page RICO complaint names 26 defendants and adds 20 more who are “fictitious and unknown”: Clinton, her campaign, the DNC, DNC Services, Perkins Coie law firm, Michael Sussmann, Marc Elias, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Charles Halliday Dolan, Jake Sullivan, John Podesta, Robert Mook, Phillipe Reines, Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, Peter Fritsch, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr, Orbis Business Intelligence, Christopher Steele, Igor Danchenko, Neustar Inc., Rodney Joffe, James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Kevin Clinesmith, Andrew McCabe, 10 “John Does,” and 10 “ABC” corporations.

That’s quite the cabal of hoaxers, and Trump probably could have named even more.

According to the suit, “The 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.” Trump is actually not overstating things.

In addition to the defendants’ “nefarious scheme to discredit, delegitimize and defame” Trump, he alleges he was “forced to incur expenses” in excess of $24 million to defend himself, and that doesn’t include lost business opportunities due to the pall of corruption unjustly cast upon him. He seeks to recoup three times the $24 million.

There may be no more corrupt individual in American politics than Hillary Clinton (though Joe Biden might give her a run for the money). She deemed herself entitled to the presidency. While she was résumé building as secretary of state, she set up an illegal email server to cover for her Clinton Foundation pay-to-play schemes she was running. When that was discovered, she needed something to make Trump appear worse. So she found a way to get Chris Steele on the case (essentially having the DNC pay Perkins Coie to pay Fusion GPS to pay Steele), clued in her allies in the Leftmedia to make her case, and set the intelligence deep state into motion to destroy her opponent before and after his victory.

Patriot Post readers know all these things, and if Special Counsel John Durham ever finishes his investigation, more Americans may learn of them. But Trump’s civil case, which draws on Durham’s indictments so far, can be wider ranging and perhaps more punitive than Durham’s criminal probe — assuming he can gain traction in court.

That last part is, unfortunately, a big “if.” Political analyst John Hinderaker, himself an attorney, writes, “The defamation count best captures the nature of the defendants’ conspiracy,” but the numerous other charges probably “won’t go far.”

Part of this is simple numbers. “Trump has local counsel in Deerfield Beach, Florida, and it appears that his principal firm will be Habba Madaio & Associates, which has at most five lawyers and is located in New Jersey,” Hinderaker notes. “There is no possible way they have the resources to prosecute this case successfully. They sued 29 individuals and companies; I don’t know how many will actually hire counsel, but Trump’s lawyers will be massively outnumbered and outgunned. Much as I would love to see Trump win this case, it is hard to foresee a happy ending.”

Indeed, the problem for Trump is that, while he’s largely correct in his allegations, if his lawsuit fails, it may seem to acquit the conspirators.

Ultimately, Trump and Clinton have something in common. Trump and his most loyal followers don’t accept his defeat in 2020, so he sues now over very real grievances. Clinton and her most loyal followers don’t accept her defeat in 2016, so she does things like read her victory speech anyway.

It’s the spirit of Ahab from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. As his ship was destroyed by the titular whale and his own death was inevitable, Ahab uttered this famous line: “To the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”