On Wednesday, Judge Linda Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit granted Detroit and Michigan's motion for sanctions against lawyers involved in challenging Michigan's 2020 election results, including Lin Wood and Sidney Powell.
As a result, Wood, Powell, and seven other lawyers have been ordered to pay attorneys fees for city and state election officials and could ultimately be suspended or even disbarred.
According to Alan Feuer with The New York Times:
A federal judge in Michigan on Wednesday night ordered sanctions to be levied against nine pro-Trump lawyers, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, ruling that a lawsuit laden with conspiracy theories that they filed last year challenging the validity of the presidential election was “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
In her decision, Judge Linda V. Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit ordered the lawyers to be referred to the local legal authorities in their home states for possible suspension or disbarment.
Declaring that the lawsuit should never have been filed, Judge Parker wrote in her 110-page order that it was “one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” but another to deceive “a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed.”
“This is what happened here,” she wrote.
The judge began by writing:
This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process. It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.
Individuals may have a right (within certain bounds) to disseminate allegations of fraud unsupported by law or fact in the public sphere. But attorneys cannot exploit their privilege and access to the judicial process to do the same. And when an attorney has done so, sanctions are in order.
Judge Parker was particularly passionate about calling out Wood and Powell for how they abused their roles as attorneys. Emphasis is original:
The attorneys who filed the instant lawsuit abused the well-established rules applicable to the litigation process by proffering claims not backed by law; proffering claims not backed by evidence (but instead, speculation, conjecture, and unwarranted suspicion); proffering factual allegations and claims without engaging in the required prefiling inquiry; and dragging out these proceedings even after they acknowledged that it was too late to attain the relief sought.
And this case was never about fraud—it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.
In announcing the sanctions in her 110 page opinion, Judge Parker wrote:
Plaintiffs’ counsel knew or should have known that these claims and legal contentions were not well-grounded in law or fact. Moreover, for the reasons also discussed above, the Court finds that Plaintiffs and their counsel filed this lawsuit for improper purposes.
Accordingly, sanctions also are warranted pursuant to the Court’s inherent authority.
Wood and Powell have drawn criticism from all sides of the aisle.
The Trump campaign late last November indicated Powell was not part of their legal team, but was rather "practicing law on her own" and was "not a member of the Trump Legal Team. She is also not a lawyer for the President in his personal capacity."
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) referred to Wood as a "clown" last 2020, joining the chorus of other conservatives warning not to take him seriously.
Derek Hunter discussed Wood and Powell in his January 3 opinion column for Townhall, "A Special Kind of Crazy."
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA) also warned that Wood and Powell were "destructive," for telling Georgians leading up to the runoff election to not vote. Powell said for "all Georgians to make it known that you will not vote at all until your vote is secure — and I mean that regardless of party."
Former Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both Republicans, lost their seats to Democratic challengers.
Sen. Jon Ossoff won in the runoff with 50.6 percent of the vote to Perdue's 49.4 percent in the runoff. Perdue had received more votes in the general election, with 49.7 percent to Ossoff's 47.9 percent, but a runoff was triggered because no candidate received 50 percent.
Sen. Raphael Warnock won in the runoff with 51.0 percent to Loeffler's 49.0 percent.
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