"This case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it.
Former United States of America President, Donald Trump and his attorneys have been fined more than $937,000 in sanctions for suing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over claims the 2016 presidential election was rigged.
This was made known by a federal judge on Thursday.
US District Judge John Middlebrooks, who dismissed Trump's lawsuit in September 2022, said the sanctions were justified because the former president had a history of misusing the courts to advance his political agenda.
"This case should never have been brought. 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 wrote in the 45-page written ruling.
On Thursday evening, Reuters was unable to reach Trump's representatives or his lead attorney in the case, Alina Habba.
Trump filed a lawsuit against Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, alleging that she and other Democrats attempted to rig the election by falsely accusing his campaign of having ties to Russia.
Middlebrooks, who was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton in 1997, dismissed the case in September, calling the lawsuit "a two-hundred-page political manifesto outlining his grievances against those that have opposed him."
Trump, a Republican, ran for re-election in 2020 but was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden, prompting him to make false claims about widespread voting fraud.
He has declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, setting up a rematch with Biden.