Remember Sidney Powell, the attorney who Trump himself once identified as part of his personal coterie of lawyers after the last presidential election but who even fell out somewhat with that crowd as she promoted bonkers conspiracy theories?
A federal appeals court has upheld financial penalties imposed on her and lawyers allied with her over a deceptive lawsuit about the 2020 election, though the court reduced the amount.
Powell and the other lawyers are now, under the terms of these latest developments, expected to cough up some $152,000. The total had previously been at $175,000. The disciplinary proceedings originate with a case that specifically challenged the 2020 election outcome seen in Michigan, where Joe Biden was victorious, flipping the state from Trump’s column in the 2016 race. As summarized in a new report from Reuters, Powell and others involved in the proceedings had sought as a key ramification of their push a court declaration that Trump had won the state in 2020. No credible authority has ever upheld that idea or similar.
The new ruling that broadly upheld the penalties on Powell and the other lawyers was from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and was issued on Friday. The other lawyers implicated in the matter are Howard Kleinhendler, Julia Zsuzsa Haller, Scott Hagerstrom, Brandon Johnson, and Gregory Rohl. Besides the reduction in the level of the financial penalty, the appeals court also let a couple of the lawyers from the broader group — which included others besides those named above — off the rhetorical hook, determining their connection to the original case was insufficient to warrant the sanctions. The court did uphold the liability of Lin Wood, though. Wood is another lawyer who was frequently a part of election challenges and has become known for his deranged rhetoric in public.
Elsewhere in the country, lawyer John Eastman has been facing proceedings that could result in his disbarment after his participation in 2020-2021 attempts to upend the well-documented election results that clearly demonstrated Biden’s victory.
