President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers are seeking another extension to file a Supreme Court petition against Hillary Clinton, asking Justice Clarence Thomas to move the deadline from September 9 to October 9, according to court filings made public this week.
This is Trump’s second extension request in the case. His lawyers previously obtained a one-month extension from Thomas, the justice assigned to handle deadline requests from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, pushing the filing deadline from August 10 to September 9.
In their latest motion, Trump’s attorneys cited “the press of urgent business by the lead Petitioner, President of the United States,” along with the need to confer with Trump regarding the petition’s scope and conflicting schedule demands. They also referenced other active cases they are handling for Trump, including a recently filed petition seeking to revive his defamation case against CNN regarding the 2020 election.
The underlying lawsuit stems from Trump’s March 2022 civil RICO claim against Clinton and others, in which he alleged they conspired to “weave a false narrative” that his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. A federal district judge dismissed the lawsuit in September 2022, calling much of it a “political manifesto,” and imposed sanctions totaling nearly $50,000 against Trump and his attorney Alina Habba.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that dismissal in November 2025, unanimously affirming the lower court’s ruling and increasing the total sanctions to nearly $1 million. The appellate panel noted that “many of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous.” The court ruled that Trump’s racketeering claims were barred by the statute of limitations — a four-year window that had expired before the lawsuit was filed.
Trump wants the Supreme Court to reverse that decision. In their petition, his lawyers plan to argue that the appeals court made “fundamental legal errors” in applying statute of limitations tolling provisions, particularly regarding tolling principles as they apply to a sitting president. They contend the court’s $1 million sanctions award was improper.
Extension requests are routinely made and granted in Supreme Court practice, and legal experts note they are unlikely to affect whether the justices ultimately agree to review the petition. It takes four of the nine justices to grant review. If the extension is approved, the Court’s decision on whether to accept the case would likely be pushed back into the fall or early winter, though the justices face no deadline to decide whether to grant review.
Trump’s effort to revive the Clinton lawsuit represents one of several pending appeals his legal team is pursuing before the Supreme Court. The justices have not yet decided whether to take up the CNN defamation petition or other Trump administration cases currently awaiting review.
Sources
- MSNBC Deadline: Legal Blog — Trump’s extension request, the prior extension to Sept. 9, cited reasons for the motion, and details of the underlying dismissal and sanctions.
- Courthouse News — The Eleventh Circuit’s November 2025 decision upholding the dismissal and affirming the statute of limitations bar on the RICO claims.
- Axios — The appellate court’s unanimous affirmation of the nearly $1 million sanctions and characterization of Trump’s arguments as frivolous.
- NBC News — The original district court dismissal in September 2022 and initial sanctions order.
- Law360 and Bloomberg Law — Background on the original March 2022 filing and the procedural history of the case through the appellate stage.
