Trump election lawyer faces possible sanctions over thin fraud claims

A judge in Michigan is hearing a courtroom case

Judge mulls possible sanctions for Trump lawyers behind Michigan election lawsuit

By Amanda Robert

July 13, 2021, 4:45 pm CDT

"During a more than six-hour hearing via videoconference on Monday, a federal judge grilled former campaign lawyers for President Donald Trump over a lawsuit they filed in Michigan alleging voter fraud in last fall’s election.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen an affidavit that makes so many leaps. This is really fantastical,” Judge Linda Parker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan told the lawyers, according to Reuters’ coverage of the hearing. “So my question to counsel here is: How could any of you as officers of the court present this affidavit?”

The Washington Post, Politico, Forbes and Law.com also have reports.

Parker held the hearing to determine whether Dallas-based Sidney Powell, Atlanta-based L. Lin Wood and other lawyers allied with Trump should be sanctioned for the lawsuit they filed in November that sought to overturn Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory in the election.

The judge had dismissed the lawsuit in December, writing in her decision that Powell’s claims of widespread voter fraud in Michigan were “nothing but speculation and conjecture.” According to Reuters, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and other government attorneys asked the judge the following month to discipline the lawyers for filing a frivolous lawsuit full of factual errors.

“What they filed was an embarrassment to the legal profession,” David Fink, a lawyer for the city of Detroit, said at Monday’s hearing.

During her inquiry, Parker said the lawyers should have investigated Trump’s voter fraud claims more carefully before filing their lawsuit.

“Should an attorney be sanctioned for his or her failure to withdraw allegations the attorney came to know were untrue?” Parker said, according to Reuters. “Is that sanctionable behavior?”

The judge also said she thought affidavits had been submitted in “bad faith.”