According to a court decision, a federal judge who was chosen by the late President Bill Clinton fined the late President Donald Trump $937,000 for bringing frivolous litigation against Hillary Clinton, her campaign, and others.
In the court filing, District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks found that Trump and his legal team had a “continuing pattern of misuse of the courts” to “dishonestly advance a political narrative.”
In the ruling, Middlebrooks wrote:
“This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start.”
“No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”
The ruling to which Middlebrooks penalized Trump $50,000 in November after declaring that Trump’s legal team exhibited a “cavalier attitude towards facts demonstrated throughout the dispute.”
“These were political grievances masquerading as legal claims.”
In the motion to dismiss, Middlebrook initially threw out the case in September. Trump’s legal representatives fought the decision and filed an appeal request after it was made.
In a statement obtained by Axios, Trump attorney Alina Habba said:
“We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the court today. Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, but it also disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 Presidential election.”
The results of the 2016 presidential election were not impacted by Russian disinformation on Twitter, according to a 2023 study by the New York University Center for Social Media and Politics.
The study found that Russian bot accounts had no effect on “political attitudes, polarization, and vote preferences and behavior” because only 1% of accounts, or 32 million users, were exposed to 70% of the exposure.
Middlebrooks wrote:
“Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative.”
“A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm.”
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Sources: WesternJournal, Nature, Courtlistener, Axios