Judge Sanctions Pro-Trump Lawyers Over Conspiracy-Theory Election Lawsuit

Judge Linda V. Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit ordered sanctions to be levied against nine pro-Trump lawyers, ruling that a lawsuit that they filed last year challenging the validity of the presidential election was “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process” and ordering them to be referred to the local legal authorities in their home states for possible suspension or disbarment, reports the New York Times. Judge Parker wrote in her 110-page order that it was “one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” but another to deceive “a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed.”

In her decision, Judge Parker accused attorneys Sydney Powell, who is based in Dallas, and L. Lin Wood, who is based in Atlanta, of abusing “the well-established rules” of litigation by making claims that were backed by neither the law nor evidence, but were instead marked by “speculation, conjecture and unwarranted suspicion.” The Michigan lawsuit, filed in late November, was one of four legal actions, collectively known as the “Kraken” suits, that Powell filed in courts around the country, claiming that tabulation machines made by Dominion Voting Systems were tampered with by a bizarre set of characters, such as the financier George Soros or Venezuelan intelligence agents. In the suits, Powell complained without merit that those conspirators began a complicated, covert plot to digitally flip votes from President Donald J. Trump to his opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr.