President Donald Trump and his former personal lawyer — Alina Habba, now the contested U.S. attorney of New Jersey — have once more been ordered to pay $1 million because of their “sanctionable conduct” in filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton.
On Wednesday, an appellate court affirmed a trial judge’s decision that Trump and his legal team wasted the judiciary’s time with a lengthy screed of a lawsuit that rehashed the president’s frustration over the Trump-Russia scandal that dogged his first administration. Trump and Habba had in the past been ordered to pay the money but had avoided it by doubling down in their lawsuit and filing an appeal; they are now back on the hook.
“Many of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous,” the appellate panel wrote, backing up the lower court’s assessment of the lawsuit.