presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton attend campaign rallies in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, October 10, 2016 and Manchester, New Hampshire, USA, October 24, 2016 in a combination file photo.
Fresh Mike | Carlos Barria Reuters
Former President Donald Trump and one of his lawyers said Friday they are appealing nearly $1 million in sanctions imposed on them for what a federal judge called a “frivolous” lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and more than two dozen other defendants.
The court’s filing of the appeal came a few days after Trump’s lawyer and his lawyer Alina Habba told the judge in the case that they were willing to post a bond of $1,031,788 to cover the costs of the sanctions when the federal Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit considered the matter.
In imposing the sanctions on January 19, Judge John Middlebrooks said in his order, “We are confronted with a lawsuit that should have been filed, which was completely reckless, both factual and legal, and which was brought in bad faith for inappropriate purposes.”
Trump’s lawsuit, which seeks $70 million in damages, accuses Clinton, former FBI officials, the Democratic National Committee and others of conspiring to create a “false narrative” that Trump and the 2016 presidential campaign against Clinton were colluding with Russia to try to win. election that year.
Middlebrooks in September withdrew the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and barred Trump from filing the complaint.
He later ordered Trump and Habba to pay more than $937,000 in sanctions.
Middlebrooks in the sanctions order called Trump a “mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial process,” and a “prolific and sophisticated litigant who repeatedly uses the courts to take revenge on political opponents.”
A day after Middlebrooks issued the order, Trump voluntarily dropped another lawsuit pending before the same judge against New York Attorney General Letitia James. The lawsuit is related to James’ pending $250 million fraud lawsuit against Trump and his company in Manhattan state court.
Jared Roberts, an attorney for Trump and Habba, did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the appeal.