Pro-Trump lawyers who pushed fraud cases face serious consequences
Attorney Sidney Powell leaves federal court in Washington on June 24, 2021. A federal judge in Michigan recently ordered sanctions against Ms. Powell and other pro-Trump lawyers for a lawsuit they filed last year challenging that state's election results.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The 鈥淜raken鈥� lawsuits, named after a mythical giant sea creature, pushed baseless claims of voter fraud in an effort to overturn 2020 presidential election results in four key states. All were quickly rejected by courts.
Now the pro-Trump lawyers who filed them following November鈥檚 vote are starting to face legal consequences for their actions. Last week, a federal judge in Michigan ordered sanctions against Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood, and seven other attorneys for what she called an 鈥渉istoric and profound abuse of the judicial process.鈥�
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker excoriated the 鈥淜raken鈥� legal team for its Michigan suit, which she described as a m茅lange of faulty reasoning, unsupported claims, and fantastical conspiracy theories.聽
Why We Wrote This
Accountability for lawyers can play a role in safeguarding democracy. A federal judge in Michigan last week sanctioned the 鈥淜raken鈥� lawyers for wasting the court鈥檚 time with baseless election fraud claims.
The suit was filed in bad faith, the judge concluded.
鈥淭his case was never about fraud,鈥� she wrote in . 鈥淚t was about undermining the people鈥檚 faith in democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.鈥�
What did the Michigan 鈥淜raken鈥� case allege?聽
Former President Donald Trump and his political allies filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging election results last year. Nearly all of them were quickly dismissed or collapsed in the courtroom.
Ms. Powell was involved in the wildest of these cases, which held, without evidence, that a conspiracy of international intelligence agents and foreign leaders hacked into U.S. voting machines and threw the election to Joe Biden. She talked publicly of 鈥渞eleasing the Kraken,鈥� comparing the baseless suits to a powerful force that would supposedly reverse the vote results.
The Michigan 鈥淜raken鈥� was filed on Nov. 15 on behalf of a group of state voters and GOP nominees to be presidential electors. It was signed by Ms. Powell and two other lawyers and listed a number of supporting attorneys.
It charged Michigan election officials with violating state election laws in the manner in which they held the November election, and made allegations of widespread voter fraud in the state. The latter were contained in numerous affidavits from individuals, some lifted from separate lawsuits already dismissed by the courts.
The suit also charged that absentee voter counts in some Michigan counties were likely manipulated by a computer algorithm installed after 2016, shifting votes from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden. It stated falsely that voting equipment companies Dominion and Smartmatic were 鈥渇ounded by foreign oligarchs and dictators to ensure computerized ballot stuffing ... to make certain Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez never lost another election.鈥�
The 鈥淜raken鈥� suit asked that as a remedy the court decertify the Michigan vote and 鈥渢ransmit certified election results that state that President Donald Trump is the winner of the election.鈥�
Judge Parker , finding it legally flawed in a number of ways, likely to fail on the merits in its charges of election law violations, and full of baseless fraud claims.
Lawyers for entities named as defendants in the case, including the city of Detroit and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, then asked the judge to sanction the lawyers who filed the suit.
Why did the judge sanction the 鈥淜raken鈥� lawyers?聽
Courts are bound by rules of evidence and procedure, and attorneys are supposed to follow ethical rules. It is one thing to spin a false tale of conspiracy on a cable news show; it鈥檚 quite another to do it in front of a judge.
On July 12, Judge Parker held a lengthy public hearing on possible sanctions for Ms. Powell, Mr. Wood, and other lawyers involved in the case. She questioned in particular whether the 鈥淜raken鈥� group had put any effort into checking the individual affidavits contained in the lawsuit.
She found they had not. They didn鈥檛 ask for further explanations from any of the people charging fraud 鈥� and had not even checked to see whether what they described were in fact state law violations.
Many of their allegations were 鈥渂ased on nothing more than belief, conjecture and speculation rather than fact,鈥� Judge Parker wrote in last week鈥檚 ruling.
One individual, for instance, said she saw two vans pull into the garage of a counting room, one in the morning and one at night. She was told they were delivering food, but she never saw any food, so she surmised it was possible they were delivering illegal ballots.
Another, out for a walk with his dog after the election, saw a young couple take three or four clear plastic bags out of their van and put them in the back of a Postal Service truck, which appeared to be waiting for them. 鈥淚t was as if the postal worker was told to meet and stand by until these large bags arrived. ... What could be in those bags could be ballots,鈥� said the affidavit.
Judge Parker called this man鈥檚 account 鈥渁 masterclass on making conjectural leaps.鈥�
Overall, the judge determined that the 鈥淜raken鈥� lawyers wasted the court鈥檚 time by 鈥渄ragging out鈥� the case long after it was too late to change anything. They asked for remedies far beyond what the court could provide, and presented information as fact without vetting it. Even cursory investigation would have revealed 鈥渨ild inaccuracies鈥� in some of the case鈥檚 expert testimony, including that related to conspiracy claims, Judge Parker wrote.
鈥淭his lawsuit should never have been filed. The [state and city defendants] should never have had to defend against it,鈥� the judge concluded.
Now what?
In her sanction decision, Judge Parker ordered the 鈥淜raken鈥� lawyers to pay defendants鈥� legal costs and each take 12 hours of continuing legal education on election law and pleading standards.
They could also face discipline or even disbarment from states where they are licensed to practice. There is recent precedent for that. Trump lawyer by a state appeals court for making 鈥渄emonstrably false and misleading claims to courts, lawmakers, and the public at large鈥� in connection with the former president鈥檚 failed reelection effort.
Other states where Ms. Powell and her associated lawyers filed 鈥淜raken鈥� cases could also levy sanctions. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, has asked a court to sanction them and force them to pay more than $100,000 in attorney fees for their lawsuit in that state.
But Ms. Powell鈥檚 most costly problem could be the defamation lawsuit filed against her by Dominion Voting Systems. The suit accuses her of overseeing a 鈥渧iral disinformation campaign鈥� against the company and asks for more than $1 billion in damages. Dominion has filed similar suits against others, including Mr. Giuliani, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and Fox News.