On Thursday (November 10), a federal Judge sanctioned former President Donald Trump’s attorneys for their role in the since-dismissed lawsuit they filed on Trump’s behalf against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and a over a dozen other defendants.
U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sanctioned four lawyers and their two law firms, ordering them to pay $50,000 in court penalties and over $16,000 for a defendant’s attorney fees.
The Judge explained that it was necessary to sanction these types of filings, adding that sanctioning would “penalize this conduct and deter similar conduct.”
Middlebrooks, a Clinton appointee, elucidated in the 19-page order that Trump’s suit included “either knowingly false or made in reckless disregard for the truth.”
The sanction order came as a result of Charles Dolan, one of Trump’s 29 defendants.
In Trump’s suit, Dolan was represented as a former top Democratic official and an ally of Clinton, despite warnings from Dolan’s attorneys about the inaccuracies.
Dolan, who was only a volunteer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, initiated the sanction motion and was awarded $16,274 for legal fees.
Alina Habba of Habba Madaio & Associates, one of the sanctioned attorneys, relayed their intention to appeal the sanction, writing in a statement, “It should be no surprise that we will be appealing this decision.”
The order comes two months after Middlebrooks dismissed Trump’s suit, in which the former President accused more than two dozen of conspiring to undermine the 2016 Presidential election.
When Middlebrooks dismissed the suit as “frivolous” describing it as “a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him.”
