Trump legal news brief: Supreme Court keeps Michigan sanctions in place for pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood

The U.S. Supreme Court rejects an appeal by pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and five others that challenged the sanctions issued by a district judge over their bogus claims that the 2020 election Michigan had been rigged against Trump. Powell and Wood are also expected to testify in the Georgia election interference case against Trump and 14 co-defendants. Here are the latest legal developments involving the former president hoping to be reelected to the White House in 2024.

Jan. 6 election interference

Supreme Court rejects appeal by Trump-aligned lawyers to dismiss sanctions in Michigan

Key players: Pro-Trump lawyersSidney Powell andLin Wood,U.S. Supreme Court

• On Tuesday, the Supreme Court let stand lower court sanctions against Powell, Wood and five others, the USA Today reported.
• The high court did not offer any comment on its decision, which means Powell, Wood and the other defendants must pay a total of $132,693.75 to the city of Detroit and another $19,639.75 in legal fees to the state of Michigan.
• In their unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 election results in Michigan, Powell, Wood and their co-defendants made wild claims in a lawsuit brought in the state alleging that Dominion voting machines were involved in fraud.
• A district court judge ruled that the lawyers’ court challenges represented a “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
• The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the bulk of the district court judge’s ruling, calling the fraud claims “simply baseless.”
• In their appeal to the Supreme Court, the defendants continued to argue that they were simply pursuing “legitimate election challenges.”
• Powell has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from her efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and has agreed to testify against Trump and 14 others still charged there.
• Dominion is suing Powell for $1.3 billion over her false claims that the company rigged the election against Trump.
• Wood has been subpoenaed to testify in the Georgia case.

Why it matters: Trump and his co-defendants continue to argue that their attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election were not illegal. The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the sanctions against those lawyers who pushed conspiracy theories in battleground states shows that that might not be the case.