This week, Michigan federal Judge Linda Parker imposed sanctions against a slew of Trump-allied attorneys, including Lin Wood and Sidney Powell — the latter of whom was once named by Trump as a member of his own legal team. These sanctions were connected to a lawsuit brought in Michigan in hopes of getting Joe Biden’s presidential election victory in the state nullified, and now, legal experts say that further discipline should be imposed in response to the raft of reckless legal efforts — in Michigan and elsewhere — to undo Biden’s election win. Disciplinary options include additional sanctions.
No legitimate evidence has ever emerged supporting the idea that Biden’s win was somehow the result of fraud, but this basic fact has not stopped individuals like Powell and others from promoting lies about the election. In Michigan, Judge Parker said that the case that Powell and others brought — and which drove the sanctions against them — “represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.” The case, she added, was “never about fraud” — instead, as the judge put it, the baseless case “was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.”
Parker’s sanctions included a requirement for Powell and the others behind the lawsuit to cover legal fees incurred by their opponents — governmental authorities in Michigan — through the course of the proceedings. The judge also referred the matter to other authorities for the possible suspension or disbarment of the lawyers involved in the sham lawsuit, and in Texas, where Powell is admitted to practice law, a hearing to seemingly consider her potential suspension or disbarment has already been scheduled. The legal experts who are supportive of sanctions against those behind these haphazard, election-related cases include national security lawyer Bradley Moss, who commented to The Hill as follows:
‘The wheels of ethical accountability grind slowly but deliberately… Within the span of 10 months, we have seen both state bars and the courts take action against those lawyers who took their propagation of Trump’s conspiratorial fantasies out of the cable news studio and into the courtroom.’
Besides Powell, another individual close to Trump who has faced repercussions for their promotion of election lies is Rudy Giuliani, who has been suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington, D.C., after he participated in his capacity as a lawyer in an election-related court case that the Trump team brought in Pennsylvania. Former federal prosecutor Barbara McQuade added as follows:
‘Lawyers who file baseless lawsuits for propaganda purposes are engaging in fraud on the public and harming our democratic institutions… For that reason, strong sanctions are needed to deter lawyers from enabling the weaponization of false information.’
Other legal experts who’ve spoken out include Northwestern University law professor Steven Lubet, who says that he thinks that Judge Parker “got it exactly right in Michigan,” adding that she “carefully reviewed the allegations and explained why each one lacked factual support or legal merit.” New York University law professor Stephen Gillers added that he believes that “the momentum for serious financial and professional consequences is all against them and accelerating.” One can hope! Read more at this link.
