Donald Trump should perhaps not have used American justice to prove himself right. The former US president sued Hillary Clinton accusing her of trying to cheat in the 2016 presidential election. But a US federal judge ruled the lawsuit ‘futile’ and sentenced Donald Trump on Thursday and his lawyer nearly a million dollars in fines. Judge John Middlebrooks ruled the Republican billionaire, who hopes to return to the White House in 2024, committed a “misuse of the courts” by filing a lawsuit “to dishonestly advance a political narrative”.
The request, which Judge Middlebrooks denied last year, claimed that Hillary Clinton and others tried to persuade the public that Donald Trump’s campaign was colluding with Russia. The former president was claiming $70 million in damages from his former rival, whom he had finally beaten in the November 2016 presidential election. “Its inadequacy as a legal remedy was obvious from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the arguments of the complaint sets out an admissible legal request, ”wrote the judge again.
Donald Trump and his lawyer Alina Habba were ordered to pay $937,989.39 to cover the opposing party’s legal costs. The former president is a “prolific and sophisticated litigator who repeatedly uses the courts to exact revenge on his political opponents,” Judge Middlebrooks wrote. “He is the architect of a strategic diversion of the judicial process, and he cannot be considered a litigant who would blindly follow the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions,” he added.