Michigan lawyer draws a direct line between Sidney Powell's unethical lawyering and the Capitol riots
Michigan lawyer David Fink was the lawyer who filed the complaint against pro-Donald Trump lawyers Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and Rudy Giuliani, and on Wednesday his efforts were successful. A federal judge ordered sanctions for the self-described "Kraken" lawyers who worked to overturn the 2020 election through fruitless lawsuits that were dismissed.
Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Fink explained that sanctions like this are extraordinarily rare. He noted that the first thing that this ruling means is that Powell and her colleagues must pay the attorneys fees for the city and state because they were forced to pay to defend against the claims.
"The judge also ordered these nine attorneys, every one of them, to take continuing legal education in election law, because they obviously didn't understand election law before they filed these cases," Fink also said. "And to take continuing legal education in the proper kind of pleadings that you're allowed to file. But most importantly, as you focused, the judge did something that's very, very rare. She's reporting all nine of these attorneys to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission and to the disciplinary authorities of the states that the out-of-state attorneys came from. This sends a critically important message. It tells lawyers that they don't have the right to just say or do anything they want."
He explained that the privilege of practicing law requires that laws and ethics be respected. That didn't happen in the case of these attorneys, and Fink said: "they'll answer for it."
Maddow asked if lawsuits like this and the publicity around it helped spur the violence seen on Jan. 6 and Fink agreed.
"They used the federal courts to broadcast lies," he said. "They used the federal courts to tell stories that weren't true and to try to give credence to the hysterical rantings of those who pretended they knew something about the way the election had gone forward. There is no question that these lawsuits and this lawsuit, in particular, fueled the flames, fueled the fire of the insurrection that we saw on Jan. 6th. Absolutely that's exactly what happened."
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