Standing Up to Bullies in Power

Something happened in a Florida federal court a few weeks ago that showed what it takes to standup to bullies, and not just any bullies, but bullies who wield power.

U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sanctioned former President Donald Trump and his attorney Alina Habba, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million in fines for filing what he deemed a frivolous lawsuit. Trump claimed that his political opponent in the 2016 presidential campaign, Hilary Clinton, as well as others involved in the Russian investigation, conspired to damage his reputation.

Middlebrooks said Trump was a sophisticated litigant who made it a practice to use the courts to seek revenge against his political opponents and called the former Republican president’s lawsuit against Clinton a “political manifesto.”

"He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process, and he cannot be seen as a litigant blindly following the advice of a lawyer. He knew full well the impact of his actions," Middlebrooks wrote in his opinion. "As such, I find that sanctions should be imposed upon Mr. Trump and his lead counsel, Ms. Habba."

The judged ordered Trump and Habba, who as a member of the bar clearly knew the frivolity of her and her client’s actions, to pay 18 defendants $938,000. Of course, they vowed to appeal, but that seems doubtful.

Indeed, the very next day, Trump dropped another one of his “revenge lawsuits,” this one against New York Attorney General Letitia James whose fraud investigation into the Trump family seeks records from his private trust.

Last month, the same Judge Middlebrooks denied Trump’s lawsuit against James and called Trump’s claims of harm “quintessentially speculative.”

In sanctioning Trump and his lawyer for the Clinton lawsuit, Middlebrooks made clear, unequivocally, to Trump that he would not tolerate the dishonest bullying tactics Trump has employed most of his life, using lawyers and friendly courts to hide his misdeeds and attack those who legitimately question those misdeeds and seek accountability.

Unlike his colleague in the Southern District of Florida, Judge Aileen Cannon, Middlebrooks rendered a decision without fear or favor. Cannon – who Trump appointed despite her apparent lack of necessary qualifications to sit on the bench – granted Trump’s request last year to effectively delay the Department of Justice’s investigation into his mishandling classified documents. But the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Cannon’s ruling that appeared to return a favor to the former president for appointing her.

“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote in its ruling. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

In regard to the lawsuit Trump filed against Clinton, Middlebrooks wrote, “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.”

Trump’s complaint that the Russian investigation tarnished his reputation is yet another bullying tactic. Despite what he and his minions including former US Attorney General Bob Barr say, the Mueller Report clearly demonstrated Russia interfered and influenced the 2016 campaign in favor of Donald Trump.

And for Trump, all roads lead to Russia. For the last year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stood against an international bully, Vladimir Putin, a Trump ally.

Remember, Trump asked Zelenskyy in 2019 for a “favor” in return for releasing a $400 million congressionally mandated military aid package then-President Trump blocked. The quid pro quo that he sought, which lead to his first impeachment, was for Ukraine to investigate his political opponent, Joe Biden.

This incident is seen in new light with the Russian dictator’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, which Trump cheered, and which hundreds of thousands have died since the war began last February.

But Putin’s invasion is failing, spectacularly, and largely because the Russian military is neither well equipped nor properly skilled. Many Russian soldiers sent mercilessly into battle appear to lack motivation for carrying out orders of a would-be czar who wants to re-build a Soviet empire in Eastern Europe.

Despite the world’s fears leading up to Putin’s aggression against his supposedly weaker neighbor, the Ukrainians stood, undaunted (and with immense help from the West led by the US), and bloodied the bully’s nose, month after month as missiles rain down on their country.

Late last year, following one Russian defeat after another, Putin, who vowed never to negotiate, signaled, then called for negotiations. But Zelenskyy knew Putin was stalling for time to build an army for a winter offensive. Ignoring Western pleas to negotiate, Zelenskyy demanded Putin first return all territory taken since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and restore Ukraine to its 1991 border.

As Russian exiles Garry Kasparov and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, co-founders of the pro-democracy Russian Action Committee, wrote this month in Foreign Affairs, Ukraine is on the verge of victory and Putin defeat, militarily and politically because of Zelenskyy’s fearless refusal to back down from a bully.

“This is a make-or-break moment for Ukraine,” the authors said.

However, Kasparov – chair of the Human Rights Foundation and a former world chess champion, and Khodorkvosky, a businessman and former political prisoner – advise that the West, and in particular President Joe Biden, must not fear the bully’s threat of nuclear war or that Putin’s fall from power would mean something worse in Russia.

“Biden can turn the tide in Kyiv’s favor by backing up his declarations of support with the delivery of tanks and long-range weaponry,” the authors said. “He can also hasten the demise of Putin’s regime, opening up the possibility of a democratic future for Russia and demonstrating to the world the folly of military aggression. The United States cannot let its fears stand in the way of Ukraine’s hopes.”

If we let them, bullies will intimidate and brutalize us. Stand up to them, and you will see how weak they truly are. At this point in human history, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.