And then, the Court fined Trump and his attorneys almost $1 million for frivolous suits.
It came out yesterday, 19 January 2023
US District Court, So. District of Florida
DONALD J. TRUMP Plaintiff, v. HILLARY R. CLINTON, et al., Defendants.
After waiting six years, in a suit filed in March of 2022, Trump alleged that Hillary Clinton and others had orchestrated “a malicious conspiracy” to spread false information that his campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential race. The one he claimed he “won” that was actually given to him by legal default.
So how’d that turn out…?
U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, in a searing 46-page judgment wrote Trump is a “prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries.”
That’s our boy!
Let’s start with Page ONE of the Court’s decision on Trump’s suit against Hillary Clinton:
“This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim. Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative. A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm. – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, Page 1.
Whoa!!! And that’s just the opening paragraph! It can only get worse and it does – here:
“…we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose. Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions. As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed upon Mr. Trump and his lead counsel, Ms. Habba.” – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, Page 6.
BOOM! Trump and his parking lot real estate lawyer, Alina Habba, have been fined almost $1 million by the judge!
More deliciousness from the dish-best-served-cold; the Judge:
“The deliberate use of a shotgun pleading is an abusive litigation tactic which amounts to obstruction of justice. This case involved three categories of shotgun pleadings condemned by the Eleventh Circuit. …I find that the pleadings here were abusive litigation tactics. The Complaint and Amended Complaint were drafted to advance a political narrative; not to address legal harm caused by any Defendant.
The 819 paragraphs of the 186-page Amended Complaint are filled with immaterial, conclusory facts not connected to any particular cause of action.” – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, pages 6-7.
In their Amended Complaint, Trump and Habba cited a letter from the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliff, to Senator Lindsey Graham as evidence of a false collusion:
“Ratcliff’s letter stated that Clinton and her campaign conceived the false Russia collision [sic] story to protect Clinton’s presidential bid, which was at the time, in trouble because of revelations about her illegally using a private email server to handle classified information. Ratcliff confirmed in the letter that Obama, Comey and Strzok knew about it. – Case 2:22-cv-14102-DMM, page 8.
And the Coup de Grace! You read the Judge’s personal footnote on that:
“This provocative allegation stirred my curiosity, so I looked up the Ratcliff letter. The allegation in the Amended Complaint fails to mention that the information came from a Russian intelligence analysis and that Mr. Ratcliffe commented:
The (intelligence community) does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.” – Letter from John Ratcliff, to Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sept. 29, 2020, almost four years after the election.”
NB: In 2016 when this ‘conspiracy’ allegedly took place, Ratcliff was not Director of National Intelligence, he was a not-so-great member of Congress and Reich-wing toady.
“Mr. Trump’s lawyers saw no professional impediment or irony in relying upon Russian intelligence as the good faith basis for their allegation.
Trump used RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE to back his claim and attack U.S. citizens. That’s balls of solid brass. No wonder the Judge was pissed.
Read it all here: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157/gov.uscourts.flsd.610157.302.0.pdf
Meanwhile, Trump had filed a $250 million suit against the NY Attorney General who successfully prosecuted the Trump organization for tax, bank, and insurance fraud. Within 24 hours of his suit against Hillary being thrown out, Trump withdrew his suit against the NY AG.
Trump’s attorneys had better watch out. Trump and his lawyers have been fined almost $1 million for filing the frivolous suit against Hillary. If Trump does not pay his share, then, his lawyers are on the hook for the whole amount. HIs main attorney — Allina Habba — is a rookie lawyer who has done nothing but serve as the attorney for a company that builds parking lots. She does not have the $$$ to pay the fine.
NY attorney Roy Cohn was Trump’s father’s attorney. After he took over his father’s businesses, Trump continued to use Cohn./
Roy Cohn. Cohn was one of the biggest swindlers known to man. He taught Trump everything he knows. Then, when Cohn was dying from AIDS, Trump completely abandoned him. Never visited him in the hospital, wouldn’t return Cohn’s phone calls, didn’t even attend Cohn’s funeral.
That’s what sort of “friend” DJT is.
It’s about time the judicial system made him pay back a tiny fraction of what he’s cost thousands of people, and the courts, with his weaponized use of frivolous lawsuits.