Judge sanctions pro-Trump lawyers over failed election lawsuit
Washington DC, Aug 25 (EFE).- Nine lawyers aligned with former United States president Donald Trump who filed an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging the Nov. 6 election results in the state of Michigan were sanctioned by a judge on Wednesday.
District Judge Linda Parker said the lawsuit “represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” according to her 110-page decision announcing the sanctions.
“It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.”
After the lawsuit was unsuccessful, Michigan and the city of Detroit asked the judge to sanction the nine attorneys, who include Trump backers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood. They will now have to reimburse state and city expenses incurred to defend against the legal action.
Parker also ordered the attorneys to complete at least 12 hours of legal education, six of them on election law.
The decision also opens the door for the lawyers to face additional actions in the states where they practice.
The judge pointed out that “the attorneys who filed the instant lawsuit abused the well-established rules applicable to the litigation process by proffering claims not backed by law; proffering claims not backed by evidence (but instead, speculation, conjecture, and unwarranted suspicion).
“And this case was never about fraud — it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” added the judge, who said “sanctions are required to deter the filing of future frivolous lawsuits designed primarily to spread the narrative that our election processes are rigged and our democratic institutions cannot be trusted.”
In the November elections, current US president, Joe Biden, defeated Trump by more than 15,000 votes in Michigan, which was one of the key states in the race for the White House.
Biden was sworn in on Jan. 20 amid tight security after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building 14 days earlier in an attempt to stop the US Congress from certifying the Democratic candidate’s electoral victory. The assault left five people dead. EFE
lb/pd/tw
