A judge has ordered that two lawyers who filed a lawsuit advancing former President Donald Trump’s false claims of mass voter fraud must pay almost $187,000 in legal fees to the defendants. This is an appropriate sanction for abuse of the legal system in service to a toxic lie. Other lawyers who promoted this attempted coup against democracy should face similar consequences.
Trump’s bluster at the microphones since the election may sound like his usual bombastic nonsense, not to be taken seriously. But behind the scenes, numerous lawyers — licensed professionals and sworn officers of the court — were repeating the nonsense before judges around the country. In the months after Nov. 3, Trump’s campaign and its allies filed more than 40 civil actions challenging the election results in various ways and, in many cases, slandering election officials, poll workers or contracting companies with allegations that weren’t merely false but, often, patently ridiculous.
Not one of those lawsuits was successful, for the simple reason that they were all based entirely on spurious conspiracy theories that any sentient adult could see were intended not to get at the facts, but to obfuscate them. That is the very definition of frivolous litigation, for which lawyers have always faced (and should face) the potential of sanctions and fines.
