A federal judge on Wednesday granted the motion of sanctions filed by the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit against the so-called “Kraken” attorneys over their conspiracy-tinged litigation hoping to overturn the 2020 presidential election, ordering that they face “possible suspension or disbarment” and be referred for a professional conduct probe.
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker did not hold back in chastising the lawyers—including infamous pro-Trump attorneys Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood—for “undermining the People’s faith in our democracy.”
“This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” Parker wrote in a lengthy 110-page ruling. “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.”
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Among the attorneys impacted by Wednesday’s decision are Powell and Wood, who filed several election lawsuits across the nation alleging widespread voter fraud following former President Donald Trump’s electoral loss, all of which were subsequently tossed out of court.
Powell likened the notorious lawsuits—which peddled baseless allegations about Venezuela and China rigging voting machines—to unleashing the “Kraken,” a giant mythological beast.
Parker, who threw out one of Powell’s election suits last December, went on to write in her ruling that “this case was never about fraud”—emphasizing the comments in italics.
“It was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so,” Parker added.
“While there are many arenas—including print, television, and social media—where protestations, conjecture, and speculation may be advanced, such expressions are neither permitted nor welcomed in a court of law,” she also wrote. “And while we as a country pride ourselves on the freedoms embodied within the First Amendment, it is well-established that an attorney’s freedom of speech is circumscribed upon ‘entering’ the courtroom.”
Besides Powell and Wood, who now add this motion to their growing pile of legal headaches, Parker also called for disciplinary committees to investigate several other lawyers attached to the frivolous lawsuit.
Besides referring the attorneys for possible disbarment and suspension, Parker also ordered the lawyers to pay the defendants’ legal fees.
