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A Michigan federal judge sanctioned a team of nine pro-Trump lawyers, including Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, who sought to overturn the state’s 2020 election as part of a wide-ranging effort across the country to challenge Joe Biden’s presidential victory through legal action.
In a 110-page ruling released Wednesday, Detroit Federal District Court Judge Linda Parker ruled that attorneys who alleged widespread voter fraud in Michigan presented unsubstantiated allegations and abused the justice system.
“This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” Parker wrote. “This case was never about fraud – it was about undermining the confidence of the people in our democracy and degrading the judicial process to do so,” she added.
Parker has ordered attorneys to pay legal fees to the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan, and will require them to complete legal training courses on advocacy standards and electoral law within six months.
She also referred the attorneys to the Michigan Attorneys Grievance Board and other appropriate disciplinary authorities, where they could be the subject of further investigation and possible suspension or expulsion in the l ‘State.
In a frenzied effort in the swing state of Michigan, then-President Donald Trump met last November Republican state leaders in the White House in an increasingly desperate attempt to overthrow democracy after a string of court defeats over his allegations and those of his campaign of electoral fraud.
All this despite the fact that officials at the local and federal levels have declared it the safest election in American history.
The Michigan lawsuit, which was filed in late November, was part of a series of lawsuits known as the “Kraken” cases that Powell has filed across the country alleging that the Dominion Voting System’s voting machines had been deliberately tampered with.
The lawsuit argued that Biden’s victory was fraudulent and called on Parker to declare Trump the winner of the state’s 16 electoral college votes.
Parker rejected the request in December, writing: “If granted, the relief would deny the right to vote the more than 5.5 million Michigan citizens who, with dignity, hope and promise with one voice, have. participated in the 2020 general elections. ”
Wednesday’s decision marked the latest development in a series of legal issues against pro-Trump lawyers who have promoted election plots.
In January, Dominion Voting Systems sued Powell and former Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani in a $ 1.3 billion libel lawsuit. A month later, Smartmatic USA, a rival election technology company, sued the two lawyers for $ 2.7 billion.
Meanwhile, Lin Wood was facing his own legal headaches in Georgia, where he is challenging a state bar request for him to pass a confidential mental skills exam after conducting a thorough examination of his alleged legal misconduct during electoral challenges.
In July, a US appeals court suspended Giuliani from practicing law in Washington DC, a month after he was suspended from his law in New York after a court ruled he did ” manifestly false and misleading statements to courts, legislators and the public in attempting to overturn election results ”.
One of the attorneys sanctioned in the Michigan trial, Scott Hagerstrom, responded to Wednesday’s ruling by saying, “This is all political. It’s about sticking with Donald Trump and Republicans. “
The other eight lawyers involved have yet to comment on the decision.
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