News lead: U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks denounced what he called Trump’s lawyers’ “overbearing attitude toward the facts presented throughout the case” and ordered them and their companies to pay $50,000 in fines in the court.
Middlebrooks also said the lawyers, led by Peter Ticktin and Alina Habba, must pay $16,274.23 in legal fees to Charles Dolan, one of those named as defendants in the dismissed lawsuit, which Trump is appealing. Dolan had initiated sanctions proceedings against the couple and fellow Trump lawyers Michael Madaio and Jamie Alan Sassoon.
What they say: “These were political complaints masquerading as legal claims,” said Middlebrooks, who was appointed by former President Clinton to the Trump lawsuit he dismissed in September.
“This cannot be attributed to incompetent counsel. It was a deliberate use of the court system to pursue a political agenda.” Middlebrooks called their lawsuit a “two-hundred-page political manifesto” that “contained factual allegations that were either knowingly false or made in reckless disregard for the truth.
What we’re watching: Habba told The New York Times that she intended to appeal the judge’s decision.
Attorneys could not be immediately reached for comment.
