Appeals court upholds $1M penalty against Trump over 'frivolous' Hillary Clinton lawsuit

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld an almost $1 million penalty against Trump and his attorneys for "sanctionable conduct" in a lawsuit they brought against Hillary Clinton.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld an almost $1 million penalty against President Donald Trump and his attorneys for "sanctionable conduct" in a racketeering lawsuit they brought against Hillary Clinton and other Democrats over the 2016 election.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld the dismissal of Trump's $24 million lawsuit, agreeing that many of its legal arguments "were indeed frivolous."

The three-judge panel also found that U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks of Southern Florida did not err when he sanctioned Trump and his then-lawyer and now-acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba and ordered them to pay $937,989.39 for their "bad faith" arguments.

The suit had alleged that in the lead-up to the 2016 election, Clinton conspired with others to “weave a false narrative” about Trump and Russia, to “discredit, delegitimize and defame” him.

Middlebrooks found that the suit was filled with frivolous claims, including a “malicious prosecution claim without a prosecution,” and a “trade secret claim without a trade secret.”