Donald Trump fined nearly $1 million for frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton

Former United States President Donald Trump and his attorneys were ordered to pay more than $937,000 in sanctions for suing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over disputed assertions that the 2016 presidential elections were rigged.A USdistrict judge John Middlebrooks, who discarded Trump’s lawsuit in September, said the sanctions were warranted because the former president had shown a pattern of misusing the courts to further his political agenda.

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"This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim," Middlebrooks wrote in the 45-page written ruling, Reuters reported.

The judge also noted that a number of allegations made by Trump in the lawsuit were exemplifying ‘abusive litigation tactics’.

"I find that the pleadings here were abusive litigation tactics. The complaint and amended complaint were drafted to advance a political narrative; not to address legal harm caused by any defendant," Middlebrooks wrote of Trump’s lawsuit.

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Trump sued Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, claiming that she and other Democrats sought to rig that election by accusing his campaign of links to Russia. Trump has repeatedly called the accusation to be false.

Middlebrooks had dismissed the case in September, calling the lawsuit “a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him”.

Donald Trump, a Republican, sought re-election in 2020 but was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden, after which he repeatedly made false claims blaming widespread voting fraud for his loss.

Trump has launched a run for the 2024 presidential election, setting up a potential rematch against Biden to reclaim the seat of power in the White House.

(With inputs from agencies)

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