Politics

Trump Fined For Revenge-Seeking Court Complaint

A US federal judge has sentenced former President Donald Trump to pay a fine of nearly one million dollars, citing purely political motives in a lawsuit he filed against political rivals, including Hillary Clinton.

In the lawsuit that the former Republican President filed against several political opponents, including former Secretary of State and former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Trump accused them of having tried to damage his reputation by being directly involved in the investigation into the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In the decision now known, Judge Donald Middlebrooks, of a court in West Palm Beach (Florida), reprimands the former President, forcing him, as well as his lawyer Alina Habba, to pay US$938,000 (about US$865,000 euros) to the total of 18 defendants in the process.

“This case should never have been admitted,” Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks said in the 46-page document.

“Its inadequacy as a legal claim was apparent from the outset. No reasonable lawyer would have raised the matter. Intended for a political purpose, none of the charges in the complaint established a comprehensible legal claim,” added the judge, who had already dismissed the suit in last september.

“Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigator who repeatedly uses the courts to exact revenge on his political opponents,” explains the judge’s decision, released on Thursday.

Strategic Abuse of The Judicial Process

The judge also considers that Donald Trump was “the mastermind of the strategic abuse of the judicial process and cannot be seen as a litigator who blindly followed the advice of an attorney”.

Thus, the judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit filed last October by Hillary Clinton’s attorneys, who asked the court to impose “sanctions against the plaintiff (Trump) and his attorney for attorney fees, costs and other compensation that the court deems fair”.

Trump had sued Clinton for allegedly conspiring with top FBI officials.

This article is originally published on rtp.pt

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