Federal judge sanctions Trump attorneys over 'misuse of the courts'

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
20 Jan 2023 18:56

US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks order former President Donald Trump and his legal team to pay an approximate $1 million dollars for misusing the courts for political purposes.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Florence Regional Airport in Florence, South Carolina, U.S., March 12, 2022 (Reuters).

In response to a “frivolous” case against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Donald Trump and his legal team have been ordered to pay more than $900,000 due to a "continuing pattern" of court misuse for political interests.

It is worth noting that the US judge had rejected Trump’s lawsuit against his 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, saying the former Republican President’s allegations that Democrats tried to rig that election by linking his campaign to Russia was an attempt to “flaunt” political grievances.

US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks, who had been previously appointed by former President Bill Clinton, stated, “This case should never have been brought," adding that "its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start."

Middlebrooks continued "No reasonable lawyer would have filed it," explaining that "intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”

The order against the Trump team, Middlebrooks wrote in the searing order, stems from “a continuing pattern of misuse of the courts," which "undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm."

In the order, Middlebrooks laid out signs of the Trump team's conduct, including “provocative and boastful rhetoric,” “a political narrative carried over from rallies,” alleged disregard for legal principles, attacks on the news outlets and “when a ruling is adverse, accusations of bias on the part of judges.”

To conclude, the judge stated, "Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process.”

Hilary Clinton admits to media leak on Trump-Russia alleged link

According to her former campaign manager, Hillary Clinton personally signed off on a plan in 2016 to quietly sell to the media the now-debunked claim that computer systems at Donald Trump's firm had a hidden communications link with a Russian bank.

Robby Mook, a witness in the trial of a former Clinton campaign lawyer accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said earlier, in May of 2022, that he and others at the campaign "weren't totally confident" in the server data's validity, but they released it to reporters nevertheless a few months before the election.

Mook recalled that "all I remember is that she agreed with it," adding that "she thought she made the right decision."

The alleged server link between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank in Russia was eventually discredited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Former campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is on trial for allegedly lying to the FBI in September 2016 when he said he wasn't representing any clients.

Perkins Coie, the campaign's law office, obtained the server hypothesis from Fusion GPS, a tiny Washington-based research firm. Fusion offered the idea and underlying data at the request of a well-known cybersecurity expert, Robert Joffe, who claimed to have mined publicly available communications data to find the supposed relationship.

Mook admitted that he didn't learn about Fusion's participation until long after the election, but he believed the hypothesis since it came from seasoned specialists. He also testified that neither he nor anyone else on the campaign instructed Sussmann to give the material to the FBI and that the primary goal was to tell the media.

Evidence of a possible hidden backchannel between Trump and Russia “was obviously incredibly alarming and concerning,” according to Mook. If accurate, “that’s probably something the American people should know when they vote,” he added. Mook stated that he expected reporters would check the hypothesis before publishing it.