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On Wednesday, a United States District Court Judge imposed sanctions against Sidney Powell, Lin Wood, and seven other pro-Trump lawyers because of a frivolous election fraud lawsuit the group filed.
Emily Newman, Julie Haller, Scott Hagerstrom, and Stefanie Lynn Junttila were also listed in the sanctions.
U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker wrote in her opinion that the lawyers, who worked with former President Donald Trump, filed the lawsuit in “bad faith and for improper purpose.”
“Further, they presented pleadings that were not ‘warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law or establishing new law’ and contained factual contentions lacking evidentiary support or likely to have evidentiary support,” the judge said.
The group of pro-Trump lawyers filed a lawsuit in Michigan last year in an attempt to decertify President Joe Biden’s victory and assert former President Trump as the winner. During a six-hour sanctions hearing in July, the lawyers argued that their roles in the lawsuit were limited.
“I played absolutely no role in drafting o the complaint, just to be clear,” Wood told Judge Parker during the sanctions hearing. “I did not review any of the documents with respect to the complaint. My name was placed on there, but I had no involvement.”
“I do not specifically recall being asked about the Michigan complaint, but I had generally indicated to Sidney Powell that if she needed a quote-unquote trial lawyer, I would certainly be willing or available to help her,” Wood said. “Would I have objected to being included by name? I don’t believe so.”
The Judge ordered the disgraced lawyers to “pay the fees and costs incurred by the State Defendant and the City of Detriot to defend its action.”
“Further, given the deficiencies in the pleadings, which claim violations of Michigan election law without a thorough understanding of what the law requires, and the number of failed election-challenge lawsuits that Plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed, the Court concludes that the sanctions imposed should include mandatory continuing legal education in the subjects of pleading standards and election law,” Judge Parker wrote in the opinion.
The Judge recommended that the bar associations in the lawyer’s home states investigate the lawyers and consider them for suspension or disbarment. The Michigan Attorney General announced that the State Bar of Texas would hold an investigatory hearing on Sidney Powell.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Bensen filed complaints against Powell in February.
“Ms. Powell has abused the trust the State Bar of Texas placed in her,” Michigan officials wrote in their complaint. “She filed a complaint based on falsehoods, used her law license in an attempt to disenfranchise Michigan voters and undermine the faith of the public in the legitimacy of the recent presidential election, and lent credence to untruths that led to violence and unrest. In doing so, she violated bother her attorney oath and the rules of professional conduct that govern the practice of law.”
Powell insists that her allegations of voter fraud are true.
“We have practiced law with the highest standards,” Powell said at the sanctions hearing in July.
During a press conference last year, Powell alleged that Antifa, Cuba, the Clinton Foundation, George Soros, and Venezuela were responsible for President Trump losing votes. She also said that President Joe Biden won the election with “communist money” and that Dominion’s voting systems changed votes to favor President Biden.
“Georgia is probably going to be the first state I’m going to blow up,” Powell said during an interview with Newsmax TV. “And Mr. Kemp and the secretary of state need to go with it.”
Powell was removed from Trump’s legal team in November 2020. She is currently facing a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting.
