DC Federal Judge Considers Sanctions

Attorney Page Pate is a criminal and constitutional attorney and a legal analyst. CNN and other media outlets frequently contact Page for his analysis of important legal issues. In a lawsuit filed by Wisconsin Voters Alliance and other groups in federal court in Washington, DC, lawyers representing President Donald Trump’s campaign sought to have the Electoral College vote and Congress block Joe Biden’s win of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.

CNN interviewed Page regarding the opinion of District Judge James Boasberg, which suggested that the Court would consider referring the lawyers representing President Trump’s campaign for disciplinary action.

Page said “that it was it was an uncommon response in a lawsuit for a judge to refer a lawyer for potential discipline. But DC district court rules allows judges who find a lawsuit frivolous — that the lawyers had no evidence to support it or had no solid legal theory behind it — to refer lawyers for sanctions from the court directly or the state bar where the lawyer is admitted, he said.”

Page further explained that it doesn’t seem that a potentially frivolous lawsuit would lead to the disbarment of a lawyer, but that “you could certainly see sanctions below that such as, what we would call a public reprimand, where the state bar says, ‘You did something wrong, don’t do it again.’ And that reprimand would be a part of the lawyer’s public file and permanent file. But it’s all up to the bar committee,” and “That’s your license to make a living, and Trump’s going to be gone at some point probably sooner rather than later…And if the lawyer wants to continue to maintain his or her practice in a particular court, then you need to follow the court rules.”