Sidney Powell and Lin Wood
The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected appeals by Trump-allied lawyers over sanctions issued against them for baseless claims raised in a Detroit federal lawsuit that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, the Michigan Advance reports.
The high court rejected the appeal without comment.
The action by the high court lets stand a June 2023 ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinatti that upheld the sanctions against seven lawyers in the Michigan case including Sidney Powell of Texas and Lin Wood of Georgia. The other lawyers included Julia Z. Haller and Brandon Johnson of Washington D.C., and Michigan's Scott Hagerstrom, Howard Kleinhendler and Gregory Rohl.
The lawyers filed the federal lawsuit in Detroit promoting conspiracy theories about voting machines and unproven claims of fraud.
In August 2021, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker in Detroit issued sanctions, stating the lawsuit challenging the election “represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process” and “should never have been filed.”
“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,” her opinion stated.
Jon King of the The Advance reports:
Altogether, Parker levied $175,000 in sanctions against the attorneys for submitting court documents that failed to meet the appropriate legal standard as they were based on “theories, conjecture, and speculation,” although that amount was later lowered to just over $150,000 to cover the legal fees involved in defending against the lawsuits. The City of Detroit will receive the lion’s share of that; $132,810.62, while the State of Michigan will receive $19,639.75. Parker also ordered the lawyers to undergo 12 hours of continuing legal education.
