FILE - In
this Nov. 4, 2020 file photo, a
Republican election challenger at
right watches over election
inspectors as they examine a ballot
as votes are counted into the early
morning hours at the central
counting board in Detroit. (AP
Photo/David Goldman, File)
U.S.
judge
declines
to
sanction
Trump
campaign
over
alleged
'disinformation'
tactic
By
Jan
Wolfe
reuters.com
DETROIT
- A
federal
judge in
Michigan
has
declined
to
reprimand
President
Donald
Trump’s
campaign
for
submitting
a court
document
that
opposing
lawyers
said was
purposefully
misleading.
U.S.
President
Donald
Trump
walks on
the
South
Lawn of
the
White
House
upon his
return
to
Washington
from
Camp
David,
U.S.,
November
29,
2020.
REUTERS/Yuri
Gripas
In a
four-page
order
issued
on
Tuesday,
U.S.
District
Judge
Janet
Neff
said she
would
not
strike
the
disputed
document
from the
court
record.
Lawyers
for the
city of
Detroit
had
asked
Neff to
strike
the
document
as a way
of
sanctioning
Trump’s
campaign.
“While
we are
disappointed
that
sanctions
were not
awarded,
this is
only one
of many
cases
filed in
Michigan,
and we
do
expect
these
lawyers
to be
sanctioned
by some
courts
for
their
repeated
frivolous
lawsuits,”
David
Fink, a
lawyer
for the
city of
Detroit,
said in
a
statement.
Trump’s
campaign
on Nov.
19 said
it was
voluntarily
dropping
a
lawsuit
contesting
Michigan’s
election
results
because
election
officials
in Wayne
County
“met and
declined
to
certify
the
results
of the
presidential
election.”
In
fact,
Republican
members
of the
Wayne
County
Board of
Canvassers
on Nov.
17
refused
at first
to
certify
the
results,
but then
reversed
themselves
after a
public
outcry.
Detroit’s
lawyers
said on
Nov. 19
that the
campaign
included
“impertinent
and
false
language”
in the
filing.
They did
not
request
a
monetary
penalty,
but said
Neff had
“the
authority
to
strike
materials
from the
record
as a
sanction.”
Federal
law
allows
Trump’s
lawyers
to
“voluntarily
dismiss
their
claims,
but it
does not
allow
them to
use a
Notice
of
Dismissal
to
spread
disinformation,”
according
to
Detroit’s
motion.
Mark
“Thor”
Hearne,
the
Trump
campaign
lawyer
who
submitted
the
document,
has said
the
sanctions
request
was
meritless
and an
attempt
to score
political
points.
Hearne
argued
affidavits
attached
to his
filing
accurately
explained
the
facts to
the
judge.
Neff
provided
little
explanation
for why
she did
not
think
the
sanction
was
warranted.
“With
the
filing
of its
motion,
the City
of
Detroit’s
factual
position
is part
of the
court
record,
and the
Court,
in its
discretion,
declines
to
impose
the
requested
sanction,”
Neff
wrote.
Reporting
by Jan
Wolfe;
Editing
by
Noeleen
Walder
and Tom
Brown
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