(DETROIT) — A federal judge in Michigan has ordered sanctions against former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, attorney Lin Wood, and several other lawyers who brought a legal challenge seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in the state.
In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Linda Parker described the suit as an “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
“It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” Parker wrote in a scathing 110-page filing. “It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.”
Parker ordered the group of nine attorneys involved in the lawsuit to pay all legal fees incurred by the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit’s attorneys, and mandated that they take legal education courses.
She also referred all nine to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission for investigation, which could possibly lead to potential suspension or disbarment.
Attorneys representing Powell and the other lawyers in the election suit did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In her ruling, Parker made note of the oath attorneys must take “to uphold and honor our legal system,” which she accused Powell, Wood and the others of flagrantly violating with their baseless and conspiracy-tinged challenge.
“Despite the haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way,” Parker wrote.
Parker also took direct aim at the defense offered by Powell that “reasonable people would not accept” her statements about the election until they were tested in the courts.
“It is not acceptable to support a lawsuit with opinions, which counsel herself claims no reasonable person would accept as fact and which were ‘inexact,’ ‘exaggerate[d],’ and ‘hyperbole,’ Parker said. “Nor is it acceptable to use the federal judiciary as a political forum to satisfy one’s political agenda. Such behavior by an attorney in a court of law has consequences.”
Parker also criticized statements made by the attorneys claiming they would still file the same complaints even given the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol incited by false claims of a “stolen” election.
“An attorney who willingly continues to assert claims doomed to fail, and which have incited violence before, must be deemed to be acting with an improper motive,” Parker said.
Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
