Trump's Lawyers Fined $1,000,000+

Donald Trump and his attorneys were sanctioned a million dollars, One million dollars The attorneys had a bad week. In fact, they had the mother of all bad weeks when a federal judge, fined them and their client 938 000 on top of 66 000 in prior fines, blasting them for filing endless barrage of garbage lawsuits as part of a continuing pattern of misuse of the courts, Which quote undermines the rule of law Basically, they.

Filed some bad filings and found out And along the way the court called them out for being really crappy lawyers lamenting that.

Our current laws are incapable of, handling people who are just bad.

At their jobs, Now generally that’s, not something that you come back from That’s, something that sends you to an ashram for a month for silent contemplation to think about where it all went wrong and how you can ever face the world again or It would, if you were a normal lawyer, but like their client, Donald Trump,’s attorneys are immune from shame And that’s a pretty handy skill.

You know what Alina You’re, not gon na win.

You can’t win.

So how did we get here? Well, in March of 2022 Donald Trump sued, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee, former FBI Director James Comey and two dozen other parties from the Kraken Cinematic universe? We kept adding defendants, You couldn’t stop adding defendants Trump demanded 72 million in damages to his reputation and legal fees that he incurred during the Mueller investigation of his campaigns.

Ties to Russia.

Trump was represented in this case by his now regular attorney, Alina Habba, who went from general counsel from a parking garage company to an attack dog for the former president.

In just a few short years. We have to fight.

She was joined by Peter Ticktin.

A Florida insurance lawyer whose claim to fame is that he was Trump’s roommate 60 years ago in a junior military academy, where he helped Trump secure.

The quote: Lady’s, Man yearbook, award The day after the suit was filed, Habba went on Sean Hannity’s show promising to avenge Trump for the great injustice of the Mueller investigation, a crime allegedly perpetrated by Hillary Clinton and the DNC.

If you are going to make up lies, if you are going to try and take him down, he’s going to fight you back, She followed up with a Newsmax hit where she promised that by suing Hillary Clinton Trump was defending democracy itself.

But what the real goal is: is democracy Now put a pin in those interviews because we’ll come back to those later Now, according to rule eight of the Federal Rules of Civil procedure, a complaint should consist of quote a short and plain statement of the Claim showing that the plea is entitled to relief.

Basically, you tell the court what happened, what laws were broken and what you want the court to do about that.

This complaint was not that Instead, Trump’s lawyer spent 108 pages screaming that Hillary Clinton and the vast network of Democratic operatives engaged, in quote An unthinkable plot, one that shocks the conscience and is of an affront to this nation.’s, democracy.

The defendants responded in April with motions to dismiss pointing out the many many problems with that particular complaint.

This put Trump and his lawyers on notice that their case was hopelessly defective Or in layman’s terms hot garbage, But instead of fixing it the 85 pages of ranting in several other, even crazier legal theories, US district Judge, Donald Middlebrooks was not impressed. Saying quote: To say that Plaintiff’s 193, page 819, paragraph amended complaint is excessive in length, would be putting things mildly.

The theory was that Clinton maliciously conspired with the deep state FBI, including supposed Clinton, loyalists James Comey, to gin up the FBI.’s Crossfire hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign.’s.

Russia ties, Which is quite the leap considering that Comey never revealed the ongoing FBI investigation in the Trump campaign, but did make public comments about the Clinton email inquiry in late October, which some people think cost her.

The 2016 election Now Trump also blamed Clinton and her minions for the Mueller investigation.

Even though Trump’s Deputy Attorney General Rod, Rosenstein was the one who appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller And yes, Trump sued Rosenstein, along with everyone else.

Accusing him of participating in a scheme quote So outrageous, subversive in incendiary that even the events of Watergate pale in comparison.

So the complaint was long on hyper caffeinated rhetoric and disastrously short on law.

It also played pretty fast and loose with the facts themselves, but most clearing it implied that the FBI’s Russian investigation, was a result of a scheme, quote conceived, coordinated and carried out by top level officials at the Clinton campaign and the DNC, including the candidate Herself, who attempted to shield her involvement behind a wall of third parties, The pleading cited, the Justice Department -‘s Inspector General’s report, which absolutely said nothing of the kind.

In fact, the report found that the inquiry was opened after a low level Trump campaign operative named George Papadopoulos, the infamous coffee boy got drunken blabbed to an Australian diplomat that Russian operatives were going to start releasing hacked materials to harm the Clinton campaign which they did Strategically dumping stolen emails from the campaign and the DNC using WikiLeaks as front man Now, instead, the complaint suggested that Trump came under the investigation after Democratic attorney named Michael Sussman, tipped off the FBI about suspicious internet traffic between the server in Trump Tower and a sanctioned Russian bank, Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you are able to find the 30 000 emails that are missing.

In reality, the Crossfire hurricane investigation was opened in July of 2016 months before Sussman showed up at the FBI in September And, among other things, Trump also blamed. Hillary Clinton for getting him kicked off of Twitter in January of 2021, But the factual problems with his complaint paled in comparison to the myriad legal deficiencies.

In his order.

Dismissing the case, Judge Middlebrooks highlighted the quote: audacity of plaintiff’s legal theories and the manner in which they clearly contravene binding case law, Which is judge speak for this complaint is not just hot garbage, but basically judicial, napalm.

Now, first, the suit was filed in Florida where none of the defendants reside.

You can’t just sue anyone in any court.

The parties have to have some connection to the place where the case is heard to establish what’s called personal jurisdiction.

Trump.’s, lawyers made the novel argument that the defendants quote knew that Florida is a state in the United States, which was an important one, and thus, I guess, could be hauled into court in the Sunshine State because they knew it was a state.

I don’t know Now.

Second, the statute of limitations for all the conduct allegedly had already passed by the time that Trump and his lawyers got around to filing this complaint And, as the defendants pointed out in their motion to dismiss Trump’s, supposed injuries took place in 2016 and 2017 And thanks to his constant tweeting, he was well aware of them at the time quote.

Notwithstanding his rousing, all caps call to action plaintiff waited four years four months and 24 days before filing suit, and that made him way too late to file, But mostly the suit failed, because Trump’s claims were nuts. He alleged that Clinton and her goons violated the racketeer influenced in corrupt organizations, act and a conspiracy to derail his political ambitions.

Yes, they claimed it was RICO and, of course it’s, never ever RICO Rico.

But okay, let’s pretend for a minute that we’re living in some alternate universe where it could be RICO.

A world Trump would dearly love to be in, since it means triple damages for the plaintiff.

Trump would have to point to a specific criminal action, known as a predicate to establish the conspiracy Trump’s.

Predicate was the theft of trade secrets.

His theory was that the DNS lookup data, which Democratic lawyer Michael Sussman, reported to the FBI, was proprietary information stolen from the Trump organization, except that DNS data is public information that can’t be stolen because it’s not secret much less.

A trade secret and without the RICO the whole lawsuit fell apart, pretty quickly, not that it wasn’t already.

There was no predicate for any of the tortious conduct, alleged or tortuous as Trump’s.

Lawyers wrote it 10 times in both their first and second complaints. Trump’s.

Lawyers also managed to embarrass themselves in a variety of creative ways.

For instance, they repeatedly described defendant Charles Dolan Jr as a resident of New York, even after Dolan sent them an affidavit.

Saying that he lived in Virginia When called out on the error, they insisted that they’d done their due diligence as lawyers, because there are lots of people named Dolan living in the state of New York.

And if you’re a lawyer who find yourself having to make this argument, you’ve probably already lost In an attempt to get their case in front of Trump appointed judge Eileen Cannon.

His lawyers first filed the case in Fort Pierce Florida.

You might recall the Judge Cannon later went on to do a whole bunch of favors for Trump, when the FBI seized a massive cash of classified documents at his home at Mar a Lago all to have that undone by three conservative judges on the 11th circuit.

But the gambit to get the RICO suit in front of her failed and they wound up in front of Judge Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the bench in 1997 by Bill Clinton.

Instead of taking their lumps, they filed an ill conceived motion to get him to disqualify himself What they described as quote prejudice so virulent or pervasive as to constitute bias against the party Judge.

Middlebrooks declined to recuse himself, having had no contact with anyone named Clinton in 20 years And it didn’t get better from there with Trump’s. Lawyers drafting a rebuke from the court for putting the home addresses of public figures like Comey and Rosenstein on the public docket So many times it appeared to be not an accident, And in April the defense filed motions to dismiss the case.

This required each of the dozens of people that Trump said were in on the RICO to hire lawyers in Florida to read this wild complaint research, the claims draft a pleading explaining why the case was nonsense and generally litigate the case.

Now that was a tremendously expensive undertaking, and in June after Trump filed an amended complaint that was even crazier than the first one.

They had to do it all over again, But unlike Donald Trump, who can raise money from his supporters to pay his lawyers, the defendants were each on the hook personally for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for legal fees, even though they went on to Win the case That’s the general rule in the United States, Even if you win, you still have to pay your own attorneys, But in September Judge Middlebrooks issued a blistering opinion.

Dismissing Trump’s RICO lawsuit, He wrote quote At its core.

The problem with plaintiff’s amended complaint is that plaintiff is not attempting to seek redress for any legal harm.

Instead, he’s seeking to flaunt a 200 page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him, And this court is not the appropriate forum, Noting that Trump’s, lawyers had been disingenuous about the conclusions of the Justice Department.’s report on the origins of the Russian investigation.

He remarked quote Plaintiff and his lawyers are, of course, free to reject the conclusions of the Inspector General, but they cannot misrepresent it in a pleading And the court found that the statute of limitations had already expired.

On Trump’s RICO claim, But even if plaintiff’s RICO claims were timely.

They still fail on the merits. At every step of the analysis, Judge Middlebrooks ended his dismissal order.

With the ominous line quote, I reserve jurisdiction to adjudicate issues pertaining to sanctions, Which is Judge speak for please file a motion asking for sanctions.

Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba, reacted to this dismissal in her usual fashion.

She ran to Fox News to whine about all the unfairness of it all Now.

Is it wise to go on national television to talk smack about the judge presiding over your case In a word? No, But that didn’t stop Habba from complaining to Sean Hannity that it was a sad day and she was trying hard not to lose faith in the justice system.

Not only do we get dismissed, he says that this is not the proper place for recourse for Donald Trump.

He has no legal ramifications.

Well, what is the proper place for him Now admitting on national television that you brought the case against the express wishes of your own client is well that’s definitely a choice.

The former president looked at me and he told me You know what Alina you’re, not gon na win, You can’t win, just get rid of it.

Don’t do the case, And I said No. We have to fight It.’s not right what happened, Particularly when you know that the court has all but invited the people you dragged down to Florida for a junk lawsuit to file a sanctions motion against you And it didn’t take long for Dolan.

The guy who really lived in Virginia to request sanctions against Trump and his lawyers Now not only had the plaintiff screwed up his address, but they’d also falsely claimed that he was a former chairman of the DNC and an active participant in a criminal conspiracy.

Dolan argued quote: large and small matters are falsely and cavalierly presented in plaintiff’s pleadings.

Any one of these false statements is grounds for sanction.

Adding his resume is available online and could have been easily checked Now.

Dolan sought sanctions under Rule 11 of the Federal rules of civil procedure To get Rule 11 sanctions you have to send what’s known as a Rule – 11 safe harbor letter.

The two opposing counsel, saying essentially your case is terrible.

I’m putting you on notice that I intend to ask the court to penalize you for filing it And the recipient then has 21 days to withdraw the complaint without penalty And no matter how outlandish the filing you can still walk away without getting sanctioned, But That’s, not what Donald Trump or his lawyers did.

The rule is meant to deter junk lawsuits by punishing parties who file pleadings with no reasonable basis, based on a legal theory that has no reasonable chance of success or which are filed in bad faith.

For an improper purpose, Judge Middlebrooks found quote here: all three are true Tearing into Trump and his lawyers for their quote: deliberate use of the judicial system to pursue a political agenda. He described the complaint, as quote political grievances, masquerading his legal claims And warned the quote.

The rule of law is undermined by the toxic combination of political fundraising, with legal fees paid by political action committees, reckless and factually untrue statements by lawyers at rallies and in the media, and efforts to advance political narrative through lawsuits without a factual basis or any cognizable Legal theory: The judge, fined Trump’s, lawyers 50, 000 and made them personally responsible for another 16 000 of Dolan’s fees and costs.

He also suggested that the attorneys should face discipline from their local Bar associations for abuse of the legal system.

Now, with dozens of other defendants signaling their intent to seek normal sanctions against Trump and his legal team Judge Middlebrooks’s order was a flashing red warning light that something very bad was about to happen, And just a few days ago, Judge Middlebrooks dropped the hammer Ordering Trump and his lawyers to fork over another 938 000 in legal fees to the defendants.

He’d dragged down to Florida for this pointless exercise And it was clear from the first sentence that Judge Middlebrooks was absolutely furious.

Quote This case should never have been brought Its inadequacy, as a legal claim was evident from the start.

No reasonable lawyer would’ve filed it.

He excoriated Trump and his attorneys for recklessly advancing claims, which quote the most basically legal research would’ve revealed.

Were nonsense He went on to say It was not that the complaint and amended complaint were inadequate in any respect.

They were inadequate in nearly every respect And – and he accused Trump’s. Lawyers of misrepresenting and cherry picking public documents to support a false, factual narrative In a deliberate attempt to harass the defendants, noting that it happened to often to be accidental Now having a federal judge, accuse a lawyer of filing a complaint which was completely frivolous.

Both factually and legally in which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose, is humiliating, And one lawyer, tweeted quote, I’d just turned in my bar card Ain’t no way I could recover, But Judge Middlebrooks went even further calling out Trump and His lawyers for a quote, continuing pattern of misuse of the courts and noting that this lawsuit did not come close to stating a legal claim, because that was never its intended purpose Now, according to Judge Middlebrooks, the intended purpose of this lawsuit was to use the federal Court as a political, fundraising tool, Trump never expected to win and didn’t care.

He filed it, so he could continue to raise money and scream about the so called Russia hoax, And the same goes for his other frivolous lawsuits against the Pulitzer Prize Board.

Cnn, Twitter and the New York Attorney General.

The court describes a litigation playbook consisting of provocative and boastful rhetoric.

Political narratives from MAGA rallies and attacks on political opponents, and the news.

Media Trump showed a disregard for legal principles and precedent, while attacking the courts as biased.

When he doesn’t get his way And most important, he raises a mountain of cash off the lawsuits and pays his lawyers with money donated to his political action committees.

Aka PACs, Now PACs are fundraising.

Vehicles for political candidates which are theoretically separate from the campaign and largely exempt from campaign finance regulation, But the court noted that Trump’s Save America PAC paid 9, 7 million in legal fees for Trump and his allies since 2021, with 2 million going to Habba’s firm And Habba recently became a senior advisor to Mr Trump’s. New MAGA Inc super PAC, So the whole system feeds on itself Trump files, a frivolous lawsuit, sending out emails to a supporters,’begging for money to fund it.

The lawyers head to friendly media outlets to hype up the case, which leads to more money being donated, which is then used to pay the lawyers who file even more frivolous lawsuits and on and on and on It’s like a virtuous cycle, except without the Virtue part and the legal system – isn’t really set up to handle this And, as Judge Middlebrooks angrily points out in his order that’s not what the courts are for It.

39: s unethical for Trump’s; lawyers to use the federal docket to host political fundraisers And it’s an abuse by Trump himself, whom the judge describes his quote: A prolific and sophisticated litigant.

Who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries and the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process? Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace, So the court made Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba, jointly liable for the millions of dollars in attorney’s fees accrued by the defendants in this case, And that means that the defendants can seek the sanctions From any one of the particular parties and then once they have recovered, then the offending plaintiffs can work out amongst themselves how they’re going to contribute to each other, And you can bet at least in the future, that every single person sued by Trump is Going to flag this order for the presiding judge as proof that Trump is a vexatious, litigant, notorious or filing frivolous lawsuits, But in the meantime, Trump’s attorneys from the Florida law.

Firm of Weber, Crabb and Wein appear to have gotten the message loud and clear.

They represented the former president in a bizarre lawsuit filed in Florida.

State Court against the New York Attorney General Leticia James Trump had hoped to get a Florida judge to intervene in the New York State civil suit against him and his company.

But the case was removed from Florida State Court to federal court where it landed on the desk of you,’re, not gon na believe this Judge Middlebrooks Just hours after the judge sanctioned Trump and Alina Habba, the Weber Crabb firm, filed papers to voluntarily dismiss the Suit against the New York AG, They did not, however, withdraw Trump’s, defamation, lawsuit in Okeechobee County against the 19 members of the Pulitzer Prize Board.

But you know baby steps So maybe now Trump’s, lawyers will stay home for a little while and maybe instead of lawyering badly, they should try learning a more ascertainable skill like cooking, delicious home cooked meals, which they could do with today,’s sponsor HelloFresh Hellofresh is a great way to eat, delicious, fresh food while still being healthy.

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