Former US President Donald Trump and his attorneys were fined about $1 million by a federal US judge for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit alleging that Hillary Clinton tried to rig the 2016 election.
According to District Judge John Middlebrooks, the Republican who is running for president again in 2024 displayed a “continued pattern of exploitation of the courts” and filed the lawsuit “in order to dishonestly push a political narrative,” he stated on Thursday, January 19.
According to the lawsuit, Trump won the 2016 presidential election over Clinton, and it was falsely reported that her campaign coordinated with Russia.
Trump has requested $70 million in damages in the lawsuit.
In the 45-page written court judgment, Middlebrooks stated that the lawsuit “should never have been launched.”
Its weakness as a legal claim was clear right away. No sane attorney would have submitted it. None of the allegations in the modified complaint presented a legally cognizable claim; they were all included for political purposes only, the judge said.
The entire amount of fines ordered to reimburse the defendants’ legal fees and charges is $937,989.39, and Trump and Habba are equally and severally accountable for it.
Trump is “a prolific and adept litigant who is regularly using the courts to seek retribution on political rivals,” Middlebrooks noted in the suit judgment.
“He cannot be viewed as a litigant who is obediently adhering to the counsel of counsel since he is the architect of strategic misuse of the legal process. He was fully aware of his actions’ consequences.
