Washington DC, United States.- A federal judge on Thursday ordered former US President Donald Trump and his lawyers to pay more than $937,000 in penalties for suing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over allegations of fraud in the 2016 presidential election.
US District Judge John Middlebrooks, who dismissed Trump’s lawsuit in September, said the sanctions were justified because the former president had displayed a pattern of misusing the courts to further his political agenda.
“This case should never have been filed. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was apparent from the start. No reasonable attorney would have filed it for political purpose, none of the charges in the Amended Complaint indicated a recognizable legal claim,” Middlebrooks wrote in the ruling. 45 page writing.
Trump’s representatives and his lead lawyer in the case, Alina Habba, could not be reached by Reuters for comment on Thursday night.
Trump sued Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, alleging that she and other Democrats tried to rig that election by falsely accusing her campaign of ties to Russia.
Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the post by President Bill Clinton in 1997, dismissed the case in September, calling the lawsuit “a 200-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those who have opposed him.”
Trump sought re-election in 2020 but was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden, after which he repeatedly made false claims blaming widespread voter fraud for his loss.
He has launched a run for the 2024 presidential election, setting up a possible rematch against Biden.
