Florida judge fines Trump and his lawyer $938,000 for 'completely frivolous' lawsuit

A Florida Judge sanctioned former President Trump and one of his attorneys Thursday, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million for filing what he said was a bogus lawsuit against

Trump's 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and others. In a blistering filing, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks accused Trump of a “pattern of abuse of the courts" for

filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which he said "undermines the rule of law" and “amounts to obstruction of justice.” “Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit

that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose," he wrote. Citing

Trump's recent legal action against the Pulitzer Prize board, New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, big tech companies and CNN, he described Trump as “a prolific and sophisticated

litigant” who uses the courts “to seek revenge on political adversaries.” “He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process,” he wrote. The ruling

required Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $938,000 to the defendants in the case. A spokesman for Trump and Habba did not immediately respond to requests

for comment late Thursday. Middlebrooks in September dismissed the suit Trump had filed against Clinton, former top FBI officials and the Democratic Party, rejecting the

former president’s claims that they and others conspired to sink his winning presidential campaign by alleging ties to Russia.