NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is getting ready to write a check to a Florida court for more than $1 million — but he’s hoping to get the money back.
Trump and one of his lawyers, Alina Habba, offered to post a $1.03 million bond to appeal a judge’s order sanctioning them $937,989 for filing a “frivolous” conspiracy suit against Hillary Clinton and others.
Trump and Habba made the offer Friday in a letter to U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks in Florida, asking him to put his sanctions order on hold while they appealed. Middlebrooks last month ordered Trump and Habba to jointly pay fees and costs racked up by Clinton and others while defending claims that she led a vast conspiracy against the former president.
“Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start,” the judge said of the Trump’s suit in his sanctions order. “No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.”
The unprecedented sanctions against a former president, who has announced he is running again in 2024, were issued on behalf of 18 defendants who submitted a joint motion accusing Trump of knowingly filing a suit with bogus and unbelievable claims to dishonestly advance a political narrative.
Trump and Habba said Friday their proposed bond represents 110% of the total sanctions and isn’t opposed by Clinton, according to the filing by Jared J. Roberts, who is handling the appeal.
David E. Kendall, Clinton’s lawyer at Williams & Connolly LLP, declined to comment.
