A federal judge on Thursday awarded nearly $1 million in fines to the former President Donald Trump and his lawyer for the file a since the “frivolous” judgment was dismissed. against Hillary Clinton and many others, who said they tried to buy the 2016 presidential election for her by threatening Trump.
“We are dealing with a sentence that should not have been entered, which is very frivolous, both factually and legally, and was brought in bad faith for an unreasonable purpose,” wrote the Judge John Middlebrooks in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida at his command allowed Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba.
Trump’s suit, which sought $70 million in damages, accused Clinton and 30 other defendants of conspiring to “spell a false story” during the 2016 election that Trump and his competition is colluding with Russia in their efforts to win the race.
Middlebrooks in his order on Thursday said that “Mr. Trump is a ruthless and special person who uses the courts to constantly use the court to take revenge on political enemies.”
“He is the supreme authority of the administration of justice, and he cannot be seen as a judge who blindly follows the advice of a lawyer,” Middlebrooks wrote.
“He was fully aware of the consequences of his actions … As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed on Mr. Trump and his senior adviser, Ms. Habba.”
Under the order, the Republican Trump and Habba, are jointly allocated for the amount of the penalty given by the judge to pay the defendant’s fees and costs: $937,989.39. This amount is approximately $120,000 less than what the co-defendants requested for penalties.
Clinton ordered $171,631 in penalties to be paid by Trump and Habba, with most of that money earmarked for Clinton’s attorney fees.
This is the second largest amount given to the order of Middlebrooks, which was given to the Committee of the Democratic National Committee, whose former chairman is Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, and a related entity $179,685.
“The amount of fees awarded in this case, while reasonable, is substantial,” Middlebrooks said.
The judge in November Habba and other Trump lawyers were allowed $50,000 for another defendant in the lawsuit, Charles Dolan.
He called the lawsuit filed in the case by Habba “court defamation,” and said that the original lawsuit and later, 186-page amended complaint “were written to advance political stories; not to resolve the legal harm caused by any defendant.”
“The Reformed Complaint is a series of interruptions, often insignificant, followed by an uncertain conclusion,” writes Middlebrooks.
“It is a deliberate attempt to confuse; to tell a story without regard to the facts.”
Habba did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the order.
Trump, who is seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, filed his challenge in March against Clinton, who was the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee.
Other defendants include the DNC, Wasserman Schultz, Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, the law firm Perkins Coie, the tracking company Fusion GPS, former FBI agent James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page , as well as Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence agent who produced the opposition investigative report “Trump-Russia dossier” before to make the election.
The suit alleges that Clinton and other defendants tampered with evidence, misled law enforcement agencies and engaged in other scandals that made “even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.”
Middlebrooks previously dismissed the lawsuit against Clinton and all the other accusers “with prejudice,” which prevents Trump from resuming the lawsuit.
Middlebrooks’ order is the latest in a series of regulatory setbacks for Trump, which have included the criminal penalties last month in New York state court sued his Manhattan-based real estate company, the Trump Organization, for a years-long tax avoidance scheme.
Trump and his company are also facing a massive lawsuit by the New York attorney general for a scheme that allegedly mispriced real estate assets for income, and Trump is also being sued by journalist E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape. he was in the mid-1990s in New York.
A Georgia state grand jury recently finished gathering evidence and hearing testimony as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into whether four attempted It is illegal for Trump to annul the results of the 2020 state election, which he lost.
And prosecutors are investigating Trump for his bid to reverse his defeat in the national election to President Joe Biden, and for taking government documents to his Florida home after he left office.