Former US President Donald Trump has sued his former opponent Hillary Clinton and other politicians from the Democratic Party for alleged defamation in connection with the so-called Russia affair.

In the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, Clinton "and her followers conspired out of sheer malice to spin the false narrative" that Republican nominee Trump was working with Russia, according to the filing filed with a federal court in Florida on Thursday Legal action.

To further their "scheming," Clinton and her supporters "falsified evidence, defrauded law enforcement agencies" and "exploited their access to highly sensitive databases," the lawsuit says.

This is "so outrageous, anti-state and incendiary" that even the Watergate affair looks "pale" in comparison.

In addition to Clinton, who ran against Trump in the 2016 presidential election, the document also lists Clinton's campaign manager at the time, John Podesta, and former FBI chief James Comey as accused, as well as the law firm Perkins Coie, which was involved in the Democratic campaign, and the Fusion company GPS.

High claims for damages

Former British secret agent Christopher Steele is also named, who prepared a dossier ahead of the 2016 presidential election that was said to contain compromising information about Trump.

Trump has repeatedly called the Steele dossier "fake."

The New York Times newspaper also concluded that there was no supporting evidence for many of Steele's claims.

Trump is calling for a jury trial on his allegations.

He is also demanding damages of at least $72 million (€65.5 million).

The so-called Russia affair was the subject of an extensive investigation by then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The question was whether Trump and his campaign team were working with Russia to influence the 2016 election.

The Mueller report cites several meetings between Trump associates and Russians, but the report failed to uncover evidence of Trump's campaign team colluding with Russia.

Trump therefore declared himself fully exonerated after the Mueller report was published.