Trump and lawyer hit with $1.3 million in sanctions for ‘frivolous’ Clinton lawsuit

FLORIDA – Former United States president Donald Trump and one of his top lawyers were ordered by a judge to pay a total of almost US$1 million (S$1.3 million) in sanctions to Mrs Hillary Clinton, her 2016 campaign and more than a dozen political operatives whom he accused of running a vast conspiracy to damage his reputation.

The suit is part of a long pattern of abuse of the courts by Mr Trump and his lawyers and “should never have been brought”, US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said in a ruling on Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start,” the judge said. “No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognisable legal claim.”

The ruling is the latest legal setback for Mr Trump, whose lawsuits challenging the result of the 2020 presidential election he lost were rejected by the courts. His lawyers barely escaped sanctions over their failed arguments against New York Attorney-General Letitia James’ civil fraud suit against him and his company, which goes to trial in October.

A suit that Mr Trump filed against Ms James in Florida was also dismissed by Judge Middlebrooks, who said the case “has all the telltale signs of being both vexatious and frivolous”.

Mr Trump, his lead attorney Alina Habba and her law firm Habba Madaio and Associates, are jointly liable for US$937,989, the judge ruled.

The sanctions were issued on behalf of 18 defendants who submitted a joint motion accusing Mr Trump and Ms Habba of knowingly filing a lawsuit with bogus and unbelievable claims to dishonestly advance a political narrative.

Judge Middlebrooks, an appointee of former president Bill Clinton, said in his ruling that filing such lawsuits “undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm”.

Mr Trump’s suit repeated many of his grievances over the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2016 investigation into whether his presidential campaign was colluding with Russia to influence the election that year, alleging that the entire probe was the result of a Democratic-led conspiracy to undermine his presidency and tarnish his reputation.

Along with Mrs Clinton, he named former FBI director James Comey, Clinton Campaign chairman John Podesta, British intelligence ex-agent Christopher Steele and many others.

Judge Middlebrooks dismissed Mr Trump’s suit in September, calling it a “manifesto”. The judge in November ordered Ms Habba and another lawyer to pay US$50,000 to the court and US$16,274 in legal fees and costs to one of the defendants, Democratic political operative Charles Dolan, who was involved in Mrs Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and filed his own motion for sanctions.

The judge rejected any notion that Mr Trump’s lawyers were the only ones at fault, saying the former president is a sophisticated client with a long history of going to court. “Mr Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries,” the judge said. “He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer.” BLOOMBERG