by
PAUL
J.
RICHARDS/AFP/Getty
Images)
Just
in
time
for
Thanksgiving,
the
Eleventh
Circuit
finally
weighed
in
on
Donald
Trump’s
appeal
that
hoped
to
set
aside
the
massive
sanctions
slapped
upon
the
president
and
his
lawyers
in
the
Florida
conspiracy
case
against
Hillary
Clinton
and
most
of
D.C.
In
a
unanimous
opinion,
the
panel
reviewed
Trump’s
deranged
Hillary-Clinton-RICO
fanfic
and
said:
Absolutely
not,
you
clowns
owe
the
million
dollars.
Before
the
inevitable
Truth
Social
posts
blasting
the
George
Soros-funded,
radical,
activist,
soyboy
circuit
judges,
we
note
that
the
opinion
is
authored
by
Chief
Judge
William
Pryor,
a
man
whose
jurisprudence
is
generally
best
described
as
“what
if
Federalist
Society
swag
bags
could
vote?”
Joining
Pryor
in
the
opinion
were
Judge
Andrew
Brasher
—
a
Trump
judge
and
Pryor’s
former
clerk
—
and
Biden-appointed
Judge
Embry
Kidd.
So,
we’re
dealing
with
a
deeply
conservative
majority
here,
and
nonetheless
upheld
the
sanctions
with
a
brand
of
judicial
deadpan
usually
reserved
for
telling
a
toddler
to
stop
sticking
forks
into
electrical
outlets.
This
case
began
as
a
Trump
shotgun
manifesto
disguised
as
a
RICO
complaint
alleging
that
Hillary
Clinton
conspired
with
James
Comey,
Perkins
Coie,
Marc
Elias,
the
Tooth
Fairy, Jake
Sullivan,
the
Democratic
Party,
and
a
series
of
John
Does
to
cook
up
the
Russia
investigation
and
ruin
his
life.
A
conspiracy
so
damaging
that
Trump
won
the
election.
The
case
was
assigned
to
Judge
Donald
Middlebrooks,
who
jettisoned
the
complaint,
warning
ominously
that
he
was
reserving
“jurisdiction
to
adjudicate
issues
pertaining
to
sanctions.”
Those
sanctions
came
in
to
the
tune
of
a
million
dollars.
Trump
appealed,
hoping
for
a
friendly
panel.
As
a
partisan
matter,
it
couldn’t
have
gotten
much
friendlier…
and
he
still
lost.
And
Trump’s
favorite
fantasy
novel
—
The
Durham
Report
—
didn’t
change
the
matter:
We
do
not
doubt
that,
in
the
light
of
the
Durham
Report,
President
Trump
has
concerns
about
some
defendants’
conduct
during
the
2016
election.
The
investigation
by
Special
Counsel
Durham
found
that
some
defendants
played
a
role
in
orchestrating
unverified
allegations
of
him
colluding
with
Russia.
And
it
found
that
key
allegations
in
the
Steele
Dossier,
relied
on
by
the
Federal
Bureau
of
Investigation
and
the
press,
were
never
corroborated.
Some
appeared
to
be
fabricated.
The
Special
Counsel’s
investigation
found
that
Bureau
officials
appeared
to
favor
Clinton
and
that
their
investigation
decisions
reflected
that
preference.
And
it
found
that
the
Crossfire
Hurricane
investigation
began
without
“any
actual
evidence
of
collusion.”
Yet,
those
findings
do
not
cure
the
deficiencies
in
Trump’s
racketeering
claims.
The
Steele
Dossier,
a
privately
commissioned
piece
of
opposition
research,
included
some
wild
and
probably
untrue
claims.
But
the
right
answer
for
any
campaign
looking
over
those
allegations
was
to
flag
the
issue
for
the
FBI.
The
Durham
Report
can’t
change
that
the
whole
case
was
time-barred,
unsupported,
incoherent,
and
stitched
together
from
misquoted
sources
and
“knowingly
false
or
made
with
reckless
disregard
for
the
truth.”
Many
of
Trump’s
and
Habba’s
legal
arguments
were
indeed
frivolous.
Even
setting
aside
the
tolling
arguments,
the
district
court
ruled
that
Trump
brought
several
frivolous
claims,
including
a
“malicious
prosecution
claim
without
a
prosecution,”
and
a
“trade
secret
claim
without
a
trade
secret.”
Habba,
of
course,
continues
to
fail
upward.
Having
walked
Trump
into
a
million
dollars
worth
of
sanctions,
she’s
presently
cosplaying
as
the
U.S.
Attorney
for
the
District
of
New
Jersey.
Now
that
they’ve
lost
the
appeal,
she’s
presumably
on
tap
to
take
over
as
Attorney
General.
And
life
just
got
a
million
dollars
more
expensive
for
Donald
Trump.
This
Trump
economy
is
really
hurting
everyone,
isn’t
it?
(Check
out
opinion
on
the
next
page…)
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
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if
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Joe
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Managing
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