Today we learned that U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks has ruled that the orange stain and his attorney Alina Habba must pay $938,000 for filing a frivolous lawsuit against the Clinton campaign.
www.huffpost.com/...
In his ruling, Middlebrooks notes that Trump has demonstrated a “pattern of abuse of the courts" for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, and that this "undermines the rule of law" and “amounts to obstruction of justice.” He’s not wrong. While many are celebrating this ruling as a win on the grounds that it is a legal rebuke against Trump, it’s worth viewing this through the lens of a cost/benefit analysis.
By that metric, Trump came out miles ahead. In addition to “gumming up the works” of a portion of the legal system, he (more importantly) was able to use the lawsuit as a vehicle for plenty of free media exposure and public opinion manipulation. (The mere existence of a lawsuit is sufficient to capture the interest of the media, especially of “journalists” who are “just asking questions.”) Extra bonus - a lawsuit like this one makes a great tool for fundraising (grifting) from gullible supporters who want to “help win the fight” with their dollars. Putting a dollar value on the gains Trump achieved with this lawsuit is difficult, but it’s not unreasonable to speculate that the amount would vastly exceed the $938,000 he’s now been ordered to pay.
It’s been said that if the penalty for breaking a law is a fine, then that law doesn’t apply to rich people. A more succinct understanding of this idea is that a fine isn’t a penalty, it’s a price.
Those who can afford to pay the price without feeling it are effectively exempt from that law. (Do you think a $500 traffic ticket means anything at all to Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos?) How many times have we seen some corporation found guilty of violating the law and ordered to pay a few million in fines, only to learn that their profits last quarter were $40 Billion? That $6 million fine is just the cost of doing business - a rounding error with no meaningful impact and with about as much deterrent effect as ten lashes with a wet noodle because not only did their profits vastly exceed the cost, but they’re still allowed to remain in business.
That’s what’s happened in this case. Yes, the orange stain got spanked, but then he was released back onto the playground to start kicking the other kids again. I assume that there must be some language in the law that limits the amount Judge Middlebrooks can order Trump to pay. He may be acting within the limits dictated by law, as he should. (Perhaps someone in the community with greater legal knowledge than I possess might enlighten us on this?) But it’s hard to reach any other conclusion than the expectation that Trump will continue to abuse the legal system as long as the cost of doing so is minimal to him.