On Thursday, a federal judge imposed sanctions totaling more than $937,000 on former American president Donald Trump and his legal team for suing Hillary Clinton over allegations that the 2016 presidential election was rigged.
The sanctions were justified, according to U.S. District Judge John Middlebrooks, who dismissed Trump’s lawsuit in September, because the former president had a history of abusing the legal system to advance his political goals.
“This case ought never to have been filed. Its shortcomings as a legal claim were immediately apparent. No sane attorney would have submitted it. None of the allegations in the modified suit made a legally cognizable claim; they were all included for political purposes “Middlebrooks penned a 45-page written decision.
Reuters was unable to get in touch with Trump’s representatives or his lead lawyer in the case, Alina Habba, for comment on Thursday night.
Trump filed a lawsuit against Clinton, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2016, alleging that she and other Democrats tried to rig the election by falsely linking his campaign to Russia.
President Bill Clinton appointed Middlebrooks to the bench in 1997. In September, Middlebrooks dismissed the case, describing it as “a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him.”
Trump, a Republican, ran for reelection in 2020 but lost to Democrat Joe Biden. Following his loss, he made several false claims about widespread voting fraud being to blame for his defeat.
He announced his candidacy for president in 2024, perhaps setting up a showdown with Biden.
