Litigation Motives
You may have heard last week that Donald Trump filed a civil lawsuit, for monetary damages, against those who he says conspired to cripple his 2016 presidential run—and later, his actual presidency.
The list of defendants reads like a “who’s who” of Democrat players—Hillary Clinton, her campaign chair John Podesta, former FBI official Peter Strzok, the Democratic National Committee itself, and its chair at the time, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz—26 defendants in all.
Predictably, those who have been sued are laughing it off, with Podesta tweeting that he looked forward to Trump’s deposition under oath. But there’s nothing funny about the fact that this lawsuit could affect the 2024 presidential election.
Oh, but not for the reasons you may think.
Let’s play conspiracy theorist for a bit. What if this lawsuit is actually a way for Donald Trump to *not* run for president in 2024?
A lawsuit with this many defendants, that is potentially this complicated, will take quite a while to make it through the legal system. And it had to be filed before any statute of limitations ran out. Obviously, President Trump knows all this. Will the lawsuit, should it move forward past defendants’ moving to throw it out of court, be concluded before November 2024? Probably not.
Is it beyond the realm of possibility to suggest that Mr. Trump filed the lawsuit to get some measure of justice over those who falsely wronged him, yes…but perhaps also to give him an “out” in the event he chooses not to run in 2024? He could say that getting justice against Clinton, Comey, and the rest is necessary to restore honor to the political system…and that there are others who can carry his agenda into the White House while he stands his ground and fights the lawsuit. He then anoints Ron DeSantis as his successor, remains the kingmaker of the MAGA movement, and makes life a living heck for those he is suing.
Far-fetched? Not any more so than some of the things we know opponents did to harm Trump’s political efforts.
