Kraken or Cracked

It was, if nothing else, a captivating cry by once-respected lawyer Sidney Powell, that she was about to release the Kraken. It’s just a word. It meant nothing. It was empty, like too many other cries directed to the emotions of the insipid who need something to grasp when reality fails to provide support to their feelings. But that was all it was. A word. An empty, meaningless, childish word.

And like too much meaningless gibberish being spewed to play into the bias of its desperately hopeful supporters, Powell, together with people of dubious mental health, tried to wrap it up in enough ribbons to not appear as devoid of fact or reason as it was. Maybe it worked for some, but it didn’t work for most. One such person was District Judge Linda Parker.

The difference, however, is that while the rules of engagement in the media might not preclude proffering outrageous and ridiculous lies of space aliens coming down from the heavens in the middle of the night to stuff millions of ballots with the name Biden into the box, attorneys taking a matter before a federal court do not have the leeway to do so. There is a duty to only present suits that are non-frivolous. There is a duty of due diligence before filing the complaint to ascertain whether the claims of witness are the product of legitimate reality or excess doses of Prozac. There is a duty of honesty to the court. Lawyers can push the envelope. They cannot throw the envelope out and shout Kraken.

Federal judges are very reluctant to go after the lawyers who bring cases before them. After all, they are mere advocates for a client, a cause, and are presumed to be doing what they must for their client. But sometimes the flagrant dishonesty, the shamelessness, the attempt at manipulation of the judiciary to become an enabler of some absurd scheme, pushes a judge too far. Judge Linda Parker was pushed too far.

This lawsuit represents a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process. It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election. It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.

Individuals may have a right (within certain bounds) to disseminate allegations of fraud unsupported by law or fact in the public sphere. But attorneys cannot exploit their privilege and access to the judicial process to do the same. And when an attorney has done so, sanctions are in order.

Perhaps you believed that there was fraud, massive fraud, in the election which “stole” it from your guy. You’re entitled to believe whatever you want in America. But the same nonsensical claims that one might make in, say, a blawg comment cannot be made to a court because it’s factually false, substantively nonsensical and violates the lawyers’ duty to determine, before filing a complaint, that there is any merit to the claim.

Specifically, attorneys have an obligation to the judiciary, their profession, and the public (i) to conduct some degree of due diligence before presenting allegations as truth; (ii) to advance only tenable claims; and (iii) to proceed with a lawsuit in good faith and based on a proper purpose. Attorneys also have an obligation to dismiss a lawsuit when it becomes clear that the requested relief is unavailable.

So what then was this Kraken crap about?

And this case was never about fraud—it was about undermining the People’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.

And so, sanctions were imposed.

Indeed, attorneys take an oath to uphold and honor our legal system. The sanctity of both the courtroom and the litigation process are preserved only when attorneys adhere to this oath and follow the rules, and only when courts impose sanctions when attorneys do not. And despite the haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way. As such the Court is duty-bound to grant the motions for sanctions filed by Defendants and Intervenor-Defendants and is imposing sanctions pursuant to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C. § 1927, and its own inherent authority.

But even so, Judge Parker couldn’t bring herself to the obvious conclusion, that this “chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create” could not somehow be “fixed” by Continuing Legal Education courses.

Further, given the deficiencies in the pleadings, which claim violations of Michigan election law without a thorough understanding of what the law requires, and the number of failed election-challenge lawsuits that Plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed, the Court concludes that the sanctions imposed should include mandatory continuing legal education in the subjects of pleading standards and election law.

While other sanctions, fees and costs and referral to discipline, are also included, the inclusion of a mandate for 12 hours of CLE, six in pleading standards and six in election law, is bizarre. If the lawyers’ failure was due to their ignorance of law, then their violations were not intentional but ignorant. Stupid lawyers are a very different problem than venal lawyers. More to the point, taking a CLE course may be about as clueless as a judge gets, as if these courses serve any purpose other than to make some money for CLE providers or as a value-added benefit for joining a bar association.

And if “one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules,” there is no continuing legal education class that magically makes its student ethical. It would be nice to assert that lawyer conduct this outrageous is incomprehensible, but it’s not, and it’s not just from these crackpots. In this age where every contrary political outcome is an existential threat to humanity, battles must be won at all cost. If Judge Parker doesn’t want this happening in her courtroom, then the fix isn’t a few hours of CLE as if a little more election law background might have cured this complete failure of integrity. These lawyers need to be disbarred.