A federal appeals court unanimously upheld a penalty of nearly $1 million against President Donald Trump and attorney Alina Habba for bringing a “frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey and other individuals.
In a decision released Wednesday, a panel of three judges on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Trump and Habba committed “sanctionable conduct” by filing the suit three years ago. They also affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss the case.
The 36-page opinion was written by Chief Judge William Pryor Jr., an appointee of former President George W. Bush. It was joined by Andrew Brasher and Embry Kidd — appointees of former President Joe Biden and Trump.
“Many of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous,” Pryor wrote, adding the pair provided “no reason” to reverse the initial ruling and associated penalty.
Following the decision, a spokesperson for the president’s legal team told Axios that “Trump will continue to pursue this matter to its just and rightful conclusion.”
The ruling marks the latest setback in Trump’s attempt to punish his political foes.
Earlier this week, a federal judge tossed the Department of Justice’s cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James on the grounds that the prosecutor was unlawfully appointed. And last week, a federal appeals court affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss Trump’s defamation suit against CNN over the network’s coverage of his claims that the 2020 election was rigged. The court called his arguments “meritless.”
Trump filed the suit against Clinton, Comey, the Democratic National Committee and dozens of others in 2022, alleging they conspired to “weave a false narrative” about him “by fabricating a story that he and his campaign colluded with Russia.”
He and Habba, his then attorney, accused Clinton — the Democratic nominee for president in 2016 — of running with this narrative to “discredit, delegitimize and defame” him.
The president maintained that the “conspiracy” to link his campaign to Russia remained ongoing for years, and that he endured a minimum of $24 million in resulting damages, including legal fees.
But, in 2023, Donald Middlebrooks, a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of Florida, tossed the case.
“This case should never have been brought,” Middlebrooks, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, wrote at the time. “Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.”
He ordered Habba and Trump — who was then living in Florida — to fork over $937,989 to the defendants to help recoup the cost of legal fees.
In their Wednesday ruling, the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit panel wrote that Middlebrooks properly considered Trump’s “pattern of misusing the courts” and that he “did not clearly err” in making his decision.
