A federal judge on Wednesday ordered sanctions against Sidney Powell, Lin Woods and other attorneys involved in bringing a legal challenge against Michigan’s 2020 election results.
U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker of the Eastern District of Michigan, ordered the attorneys to pay the state and city of Detroit’s legal fees. The lawyers must also take legal education classes, the judge said, and she is referring her decision to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, and “the appropriate disciplinary authority for the jurisdiction(s) where each attorney is admitted,” for potential disciplinary action including possible suspension or disbarment.
The other named attorneys include Emily Newman (Virginia), Julia Haller (the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, and New Jersey), Brandon Johnson (the District of Columbia, New York, and Nevada), Scott Hagerstrom (Michigan), Howard Kleinhendler (New York and New Jersey), Gregory Rohl (Michigan), and Stefanie Lynn Junttila (Michigan).
“Sanctions are required to deter the filing of future frivolous lawsuits designed primarily to spread the narrative that our election processes are rigged and our democratic institutions cannot be trusted,” the judge wrote in a 110-page opinion, according to CNN.
The lawsuit was filed weeks after the presidential election in November on behalf of six Republican voters who wanted Parker to decertify Michigan’s election results. They accused public officials of illegally manipulating ballots in order to help President Biden win the state.
“The attorneys who filed the instant lawsuit abused the well-established rules applicable to the litigation process by proffering claims not backed by law; proffering claims not backed by evidence (but instead, speculation, conjecture, and unwarranted suspicion); proffering factual allegations and claims without engaging in the required prefiling inquiry; and dragging out these proceedings even after they acknowledged that it was too late to attain the relief sought,” Parker wrote. “And this case was never about fraud—it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” she added.
