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- A federal judge on Monday criticized “Kraken” lawyers, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood.
- The remarks were during a hearing on whether they should face penalties for their election lawsuits.
- Justice Parker suggested that Powell and the other attorneys submitted affidavits in “bad faith” and called them “fantastic.”
A federal judge on Monday excoriated a group of Republican-aligned lawyers, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, for their legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker made the comments during a contentious hearing – which took place on
Zoom
– whose purpose was to determine whether lawyers should face penalties for their actions.
Parker has repeatedly criticized lawyers for failing to conduct a “minimal” amount of research on the “evidence” they presented as part of their multi-pronged efforts – which Powell called the “Kraken” – to overturn election results in states like Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona.
“The court is concerned that these affidavits were submitted in bad faith,” Parker said.
After the failure of the so-called Kraken, Michigan and the city of Detroit filed complaints with the bar demanding punishment for Powell, Wood, and the attorneys who signed their lawsuits, including Julia Haller, Howard Kleinhendler, Gregory Rohl , Brandon Johnson, Scott Hagerstrom, and Stefanie Junttila.
Wood sought to distance himself from the Kraken early in the hearing, saying he “had absolutely no role in drafting the complaint” in Michigan.
“I have not reviewed any of the documents relating to the complaint,” Wood said, and later added, “I just have no involvement with it.”
But David Fink, an attorney representing Detroit, disputed the claim, saying Wood publicly endorsed the effort on social media and Wood’s own attorney said he was associated with the case.
“He’s ready to tell people when it helps him that he’s involved in this matter,” Fink said. He then accused the Kraken team of “claiming things that could not have happened, either in law or in fact” and of “not verifying anything that they found.”
Parker also criticized lawyers for filing affidavits without adequately investigating their allegations.
“I don’t think I’ve ever really seen an affidavit” like this, Parker said after reading an affidavit the author of which speculated at length about whether the US Postal Service tampered with mail-in ballots in the 2020 elections.
“It’s really fantastic,” Parker said. “How can one of you, as a court officer, present this type of affidavit? “
Haller responded and said the depositor submitted information that he believed to be true.
“Do you think by the wording of the affidavit, Ms. Haller, he is stating that he actually believes his findings to be true?” Parker pressed.
Shortly after, Powell spoke for the first time at the hearing, claiming that they had filed a “massive” federal complaint alleging nationwide electoral fraud and added that the only way to test these allegations was to go through the “crucible” of a trial.
But the judge rejected Powell’s statement, saying “volume … certainly doesn’t equate to legitimacy.”
Fink also stacked.
“They made these allegations based on the paranoid delusions of a witness who never even makes it to the punchline,” he said of the Kraken team. If they don’t have proof, they can’t make “miscellaneous, defamatory and frankly false” claims, he added.
In his closing remarks, Fink accused the plaintiffs of “playing a very strange game of passing the buck” regarding their role in the Kraken lawsuits.
He also noted that Monday’s hearing comes just over six months after the deadly insurgency on Capitol Hill on January 6, adding that it “has horrified most of us, maybe not all of us at the time. screen, “in which case Wood interrupted and charged Fink with libel. .
The argument became so sharp that the court reporter stepped in, noted that the hearing had been taking place since 8:30 a.m. ET, and asked the lawyers to stop talking to each other so that she could accurately document the proceedings.
Justice Parker reimposed the order, at which point Fink accused Kraken lawyers of using their licenses to “abuse the court’s processes” in “devastating ways.”
Fink also drew a direct line between the efforts of the Kraken team and the Capitol siege.
“Due to the lies spread in this courtroom, not only did people die on January 6, but many people around the world … have come to doubt the strength of our democratic institutions in this regard. country, ”he said, adding that the court has a responsibility to sanction Kraken lawyers for their actions.
“Because of the way these lawyers have dishonored our profession, because of the way these lawyers took advantage of this tribunal and this courtroom,” the Kraken team should be referred to the bar for disciplinary proceedings, he said, adding that they should also be referred to the Chief Justice of the Eastern District of Michigan and be banned from practicing law in the district.
Powell later said she was against “almost everything,” Fink said, adding that she had never seen anything like his remarks in her years as a lawyer.
Parker then thanked Powell and the other attorneys for their remarks and concluded the hearing, saying that although the process was long, “it has been a necessary day.”
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