OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A group of lawyers who sued the state of Michigan over the results of the 2020 election have been ordered by a judge to pay roughly $175,000.
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker, who was nominated by former President Barack Obama, ordered nine attorneys — including Sidney Powell and Lin Wood — to pay $21,964.75 to Michigan and $153,285.62 to the city of Detroit, according to Forbes.
In her opinion, Parker that the amount ordered to pay was an “appropriate sanction … needed to deter Plaintiffs’ counsel and others from engaging in similar misconduct in the future.”
Parker has said the attorneys’ lawsuit was “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
“This case was never about fraud — it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” she wrote in August when she ruled against the attorneys.
“We disagree with the district court’s decision in its entirety and we plan to promptly appeal to the Sixth Circuit,” said Howard Kleinhendler, one of the lawyers, who also represents Powell, The Washington Post reported.
Wood also said he will appeal.
“I undertook no act in Michigan and I had no involvement in the Michigan lawsuit filed by Sidney Powell,” he said in an email.
“One of a series of lawsuits filed in several states known as the “Kraken” cases — after Powell promised her lawsuits would amount to releasing the mythical creature in Trump’s defense — the Michigan case had been brought on behalf of six local Republicans in late November 2020, after Joe Biden’s victory in the state had already been certified,” The Washington Post reported.
“It argued that Biden’s win had been marred by fraud and asked Parker to require that Trump instead be declared the winner of Michigan’s 16 electoral votes. Parker rejected the request in December, writing that she was being asked to disenfranchise ‘more than 5.5 million Michigan citizens who, with dignity, hope, and a promise of a voice, participated in the 2020 General Election,'” the Post reported.
Back in August, Parker published a 110-page ruling claiming that the lawsuit “was never about fraud.”
“It was,” she wrote, “about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.”
“Last week, a federal judge in Colorado ordered two other lawyers in that state to pay nearly $187,000 to public officials and private companies they sued in a failed challenge to the 2020 results, writing that the lawyers needed “to take responsibility” for the legal misconduct represented by the suit,” the Post reported.
“Grievance proceedings have also been opened in multiple states to examine whether lawyers involved in such suits should be disbarred. New York state in June suspended former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani’s license while a committee of judges explores his efforts as Trump’s attorney to overturn the election. Giuliani is appealing the order and has said he is confident his license will be restored,” the Post report added.
