Trump lawyers try to revive 'frivolous' lawsuit against Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump's lawyers have asked a federal appeals court to step into his ongoing legal battle against Hillary Clinton.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks had refused for a second time to step aside from the former president's racketeering suit against his 2016 presidential rival – and fined them nearly $1 million in sanctions for what he called a "frivolous" lawsuit.

But the former lawyers filed a notice of appeal Wednesday to that ruling, reported Law & Crime.

"On Sept. 15, Judge Middlebrooks, a Bill Clinton appointee who has said he’s 'never met or spoken with Bill or Hillary Clinton' and has never had 'any relationship with the Clintons,' wrote that Trump brought the appeal to the 11th Circuit back in February, divesting the district court and Middlebrooks of 'control over those aspects of the case involved in the appeal,'" the website reported.

Middlebrooks said that even if he had jurisdiction over the request to remove himself, he would have denied it, saying the case against was brought in "bad faith."

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“The case before me was frivolous, its purpose was improper and part of a pattern of behavior harmful to the Rule of Law,” the judge wrote. “Article III judges have an obligation to protect the administration of justice from abuse.”

The lawsuit names Clinton and her top advisers and involves the investigation into whether Trump's campaign had worked with Russia to influence the outcome.

Trump's lawyers filed a motion in July arguing that the report by special counsel John Durham looking at Russian interference in the 2016 election "seismically alters the legal landscape of this case," but Middlebrooks accused them of "cherry-picking" portions of the report to support a false narrative and said that's the type of behavior for which he had already sanctioned them.

“I imposed nearly $1 million in sanctions on Movants for filing, and doubling down on, a shotgun pleading that functioned as an abusive litigation tactic and was designed to further a political narrative," Middlebrooks wrote. "In doing so, I relied on three Eleventh Circuit decisions, with conduct less problematic than here, that affirmed an imposition of sanctions because of shotgun pleadings. I explained that cases like this are harmful to the rule of law, portray judges as partisans, and divert resources that should be directed to real harms and legitimate legal claims.”

Trump's attorneys told the court they planned to appeal both denials, along with other dismissals and sanctions, and appear likely to argue again the Durham report was enough to justify the RICO lawsuit's revival.