Already in full retreat after filing a request for dismissal on his lawsuit against the New York attorney general, Donald Trump finds himself hit with a double whammy the same day. A federal judge in Florida has ordered him, and his lawyer, Alina Habba, to pay $1 million in sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, which the judge deemed, “a deliberate attempt to harass.” Ouch. Law & Crime:
“This lawsuit should have never been brought,” U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks wrote at the start of his scathing, 46-page ruling in the former president’s lawsuit. Trump sued Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), former FBI Director James Comey, former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, and several other major players in the Democratic party in March of 2022, alleging a sprawling RICO scheme in which they targeted then-candidate Trump, who would eventually go on to win the 2016 presidential election. […]
Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries,” Middlebrooks wrote. “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.”
Calling the complaint a “shotgun pleading,” Middlebrooks said that Trump and his legal team deployed “abusive litigation tactics” that were “drafted to advance a political narrative[,] not to address legal harm caused by any Defendant.”
“The Amended Complaint is a hodgepodge of disconnected, often immaterial events, followed by an implausible conclusion,” Middlebrooks said in his ruling. “This is a deliberate attempt to harass; to tell a story without regard to facts.”
This is brutal. Judges don’t routinely speak this way in rulings. This judge is completely fed up and that is certainly understandable.
Now here’s a comical note: the judge has invited Trump and his lawyer to prove that these sanctions would be impossible for them to pay. It will be interesting to see what Trump does with this.
“I believe the monetary sanctions imposed here are well within Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s lawyer ability to pay, and therefore I have not thought it necessary to conduct an intrusive inquiry into their finances,” Middlebrooks wrote (citations omitted). “However, should Plaintiff or Plaintiff’s lawyer (and law firm) believe that the amount would seriously jeopardize their financial status, that individual or firm should file within ten (10) days of this Order, under seal, a verified statement of net worth which includes assets and liabilities. In the event of such a filing, the obligation of that individual or law firm will be tolled until further order of the Court.”
Now what is Trump going to do with this? Provide some statement that proves he’s impoverished? No way he’s going to do that, even if he could. And as to Alina Habba, I would not be surprised if Trump left her holding the bag and expected her to pay all the sanctions. I expect that, in fact. This is all her fault, will be his argument, for losing the case. Plus, there’s also $167,000 worth of attorneys’ fees which Trump owes Hillary Clinton’s lawyers. I wonder if they’ll ever see a dime?
Yet this is the man who is the titular head of the Grand Old Party.
The former guy probably doesn’t have a million dollars to spend: his income is from licensing agreements. That’s why he’s always grifting.
Would the fact that he has very little liquid assets cut any ice with the judge, or would they just tell him to sell something and pay up?
He can always scrape some of the gold leaf off that infamous escalator, his infamous gold toilet and all the other tacky crap he surrounds himself with. He just might be able to pay that fine.
I’m betting the infamous gold escalator is actually brass. “The poor mans gold.” Fake gold. The brass alloy was made to ncely simulate gold, as long as it is kept well polished, which isn’t hard to do. Solid brass is actually better at fooling than gold plate, which wears down to the base metal eventually.
He’ll just shake down his cult for his 30 pieces of silver.