• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
Leadership

Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Spent 4 Hours Naming Trump Lawsuits on Facebook Live

By
Ian Mount
Ian Mount
Madrid-based Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Ian Mount
Ian Mount
Madrid-based Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 20, 2016, 7:42 AM ET
Trump in Colorado
DENVER, CO - JULY 01: Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate headlines the 2016 Western Conservative Summit at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, July 01, 2016. It is the 7th annual Western Conservative Summit. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images)Photograph by RJ Sangosti — Denver Post via Getty Images

On Tuesday afternoon, a team of Hillary Clinton campaign staffers took to Facebook Live with a simple goal: “We think Donald J. Trump‘s been involved in more than 5,500 lawsuits,” the campaign posted on the social media site. “We’re going to try to read them all in under four hours.”

What followed next didn’t make for the most scintillating television, but it certainly got the point across.

Surrounded by whiteboards and file boxes in a crowded campaign office, several members of Clinton’s opposition research team—Lauren Dillon, Tyson Brody, and an unnamed assistant—explained the logic of their stunt. (If you have four hours to kill, you can watch their efforts here.)

“Trump has really made his business record a key centerpoint of his campaign. But there’s one thing that we know: He made millions off of ripping people off,” Dillon said.

“Now, this may take a bit,” Brody joked, “Because if you laid up Trump’s lawsuits back to back it would actually reach to the moon and back”

And with that, Dillon and Brody took turns reading the titles of lawsuits in which the Republican presidential nominee was involved or party to—starting with Trump Plaza Associates v. Thomas.

Looking progressively exhausted, the pair read the names while the third campaign worker made tally marks on a white board and occasionally updated the total.

 

During his long business career, the 70-year-old Trump has been involved in what is by any count an eye-popping numbers of lawsuits (including suits against his ex-wife Ivana, Merv Griffin, and people who share his last name).

A USA Today investigation found about 3,500 legal actions that involved Trump over the last 30 years, including some 1,900 where Trump (or one of his companies) was a plaintiff and 1,300 where he (or a related company) was a defendant. As Fortune noted in June, that’s more than the 2,609 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed during the almost eight years of the Barack Obama presidency.

Americans may never know the exact number of lawsuits that Trump has been a party to or involved in. As Clinton’s opposition research team came to the end of their four hours of allotted Facebook Live time, they had only made it a little past 3,150.

“We failed,” Brody exclaimed. “I still have so many papers!” Dillon added. And other staffers crowded in, tossing confetti.

Fortune has contacted the Donald Trump campaign for comment and will update this story if it replies.

About the Author
By Ian MountMadrid-based Editor
LinkedIn icon

Ian Mount is a Madrid-based editor at Fortune.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Leadership

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
Fortune Secondary Logo
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Leadership

Future of WorkGen Z
‘That résumé goes right into the garbage’: Kevin O’Leary says it’s a ‘horrific signal’ for Gen Z to bring their parents to job interviews
By Sydney LakeMarch 2, 2026
2 hours ago
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman
SuccessCEO salaries and executive compensation
Blackstone CEO took home $1.2 billion last year after going ‘max everything’ with work—but he wouldn’t advise his children to put themselves under so much pressure
By Emma BurleighMarch 2, 2026
4 hours ago
Warren Buffett scratching his head
SuccessWealth
Warren Buffett once admitted that selling McDonald’s shares was ‘a very big mistake.’ Today, they’d be worth over $10 billion 
By Preston ForeMarch 2, 2026
5 hours ago
carvalho
Lawschools
2 years after $3 million deal with bankrupt chatbot firm, LA’s schools superintendent is under investigation
By Jaimie Ding, Julie Watson and The Associated PressMarch 2, 2026
7 hours ago
venice
Real EstateChina
Meet a burned out 28-year-old who pays $168 a month in China’s faux Venice to retire early from her Shanghai finance gig
By Albee Zhang and The Associated PressMarch 2, 2026
7 hours ago
warren
InvestingBerkshire Hathaway
Berkshire’s Greg Abel admits ‘Warren is obviously a very hard act to follow’ in first letter to shareholders
By Josh Funk and The Associated PressMarch 2, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

placeholder alt text
Success
MacKenzie Scott's close relationship with Toni Morrison long before Amazon put Scott on the path to give more than $1 billion to HBCUs
By Sasha RogelbergMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Economy
Your grandparents are the reason the U.S. isn't in a recession right now. That won't last forever
By Eleanor PringleMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Middle East
U.S. military gives Iran a taste of its own medicine with cheap copycat Shahed drones, while concern shifts to munitions supply in extended conflict
By Jason MaMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Middle East
As Iran attacks Dubai, the tax-free haven for the global elite could see 'catastrophic' fallout — 'this can also send shockwaves globally'
By Jason MaMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
AI
American schools weren’t broken until Silicon Valley used a lie to convince them they were—now reading and math scores are plummeting
By Sasha RogelbergMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Health
Gen Z men are eating ‘boy kibble,’ the human equivalent to dog food, to load up on protein cheaply
By Jake AngeloMarch 1, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.