Florida judge whacks Trump lawyers with nearly $1 million in sanctions for 'misuse of the courts'

Federal District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks on Thursday dropped the hammer on former President Donald Trump's attorneys by hitting them with sanctions totaling nearly $1 million for what he described as "misuse of the courts."

In a court order flagged by Politico's Kyle Cheney, Middlebrooks raked Trump's lawyers over the coals for their failed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton for purportedly defaming him by accusing him of being Russian President Vladimir Putin's puppet during the 2016 campaign.

"This case should never have been brought," Middlebrooks began his order. "Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. 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."

Middlebrooks went on to detail the damage caused by the Trump legal team's actions.

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"Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative," he said. "A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm."

As evidence of the frivolity of the lawsuit, Middlebrooks cited an interview Trump attorney Alina Habba gave to Fox News' Sean Hannity where she revealed even Trump thought the case against Clinton wouldn't work and that she persuaded him to back it anyway.

"The former president looked at me and he told me, you know what Alina. You’re not going to win," Habba told Hannity last September. "You can’t win, just get rid of it, don’t do the case. And I said, no, we have to fight."

In all, Middlebrooks levied sanctions against the Trump lawyers totaling $938,000.