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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Gustaf Kilander

Hillary Clinton supporters goad Trump after judge fines him $1m for ‘revenge’ lawsuit against her

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Hillary Clinton supporters are goading Donald Trump after he withdrew a $250m lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James, which followed a warning from a federal judge regarding a lawsuit against his 2016 opponent and other officials.

In a short filing on Friday morning, the Trump legal team withdrew the filing with US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks after his Thursday warning.

“Plaintiff, PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP, by and through his undersigned counsel and pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i), hereby voluntarily dismisses his claims in this action against Defendant, LETITIA JAMES, without prejudice,” the letter to the judge said.

The withdrawn lawsuit attempted to protect Mr Trump’s trust from Ms James, whose $250m civil suit outlines allegations of fraud at the Trump Organization.

The federal judge in Florida sanctioned the former president and his legal team nearly $1m for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and others.

Mr Trump, in the suit filed against the former Democratic presidential candidate Ms Clinton, former FBI director James Comey and dozens of other officials, alleged that they tried to rig the 2016 election by falsely accusing his campaign of links to Russia.

“This case should never have been brought,” wrote Judge Middlebrooks of the Southern District of Florida in his order. “Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start.”

Twitter users took the time on Friday to mock the former president and celebrate the good news for Ms Clinton.

“Trump has just cancelled his frivolous lawsuit against NYAG Letitia James after being forced to pay Hillary Clinton and others nearly $1M in a separate frivolous lawsuit. He can’t stop winning! And by ‘winning’ I mean losing,” Brian and Ed Krassenstein wrote.

“Habba and trump have DROPPED their lawsuit against Tish James after being hit with $1,000,000 in sanctions for their lawsuit against Hillary Clinton yesterday. Florida Judge Middlebrooks had both cases because Donald was trying to get Aileen Cannon. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” the Allison Gill of the Mueller, She Wrote podcast wrote.

“Mr Trump was fined almost a million dollars for his frivolous revenge lawsuit against Hillary Clinton. SUCK IT Hillary haters!” Lynda Straffin added.

“How much you wanna bet Ms Habba & Mr Trump won’t be posing for photos now that they’ve been fined nearly $1 million dollars for the revenge lawsuit against Hillary Clinton! Bonus fact: following that bigly fine, the revenge lawsuit against Letitia James has been DROPPED!” one Twitter user said.

University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, legal scholar Laurence Tribe, wrote that “the frivolous lawsuit for which Trump and his attorney were sanctioned was a suit against Hillary Clinton for how she ran against him in 2016! We knew Trump was the sorest of sore losers. Now we know he’s a sore winner too!”

“*Opens twitter* ‘Mr. Trump fined one million dollars for his frivolous revenge lawsuit against Hillary Clinton’ *Closes Twitter because it can’t get better than this!*” another account holder posted.

“On the heels of being sanctioned nearly $1,000,000 for his frivolous lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, Trump abandons his frivolous lawsuit against Letitia James in front of the same judge Donald Middlebrooks. Isn’t it nice to see some accountability and consequences in action?” Don Lewis wrote.

Professor Christopher Painter at Birmingham City University in the UK asked, “for how much longer is this man going to be allowed to reduce due process in virtually every US institutional setting - presidency, elections, courts - to complete farce?”

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