NEW YORK – A Florida judge has acquitted former President Donald Trump and one of his lawyers, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million for filing what he called a bogus lawsuit against the Trump 2016, Hillary Clinton and others.
In a scathing filing Thursday, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks accused Trump of a “pattern of judicial abuse” for filing impeachment charges for political purposes, which he stating that “it destroys the rule of law” and “there is a lot of obstruction of justice. justice.”
“Here, we are dealing with a sentence that should not have been entered, which was very frivolous, both factually and legally, and was brought in bad faith for an unreasonable purpose,” he wrote.
Citing Trump’s recent lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize board, the New York attorney general, major tech companies and CNN, he described Trump as a “strong and intelligent person” who used the courts “to take revenge on political enemies.”
“He is the master of the use of justice,” he wrote.
The decision required Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $938,000 to the defendants in the case.
A spokesman for Trump and Habba did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Thursday.
Middlebrooks in September dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trump against Clinton, a former top FBI official and the Democratic Party, rejecting the former president’s claim that they and others conspired to sink his successful presidential campaign by alleging ties to Russia.
The lawsuit names as defendants Clinton and some of her top advisers, as well as former FBI Director James Comey and other FBI officials involved in the investigation into Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. campaign worked with Russia to influence the outcome of the election.
He said that the suit contains “inconvenient flaws” and many “indicators of events that are not proven.”
Following the sanctions, Trump on Friday withdrew his lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The case, before the federal court in Florida, was also done before Middlebrooks.
Trump indicted James in November in response to his lawsuit alleging that he and his company defrauded banks and others about the value of assets in a scheme he called “The image of theft.”
Trump, a Republican, also tried to prevent James, a Democrat, from having an oversight on the family trust that runs his company. His 35-page complaint restates some of the claims from his previously dismissed lawsuit against James in federal court in New York, angering Middlebrooks, who wrote in a December order: “The this judgment has all the signs of anger and ignorance.”
Associated Press reporter Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.