Of all the lawsuits arising from the former president’s claims of election fraud and his legal attacks upon his perceived enemies one of the most satisfying involves Hillary Clinton. US District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks wrote “…Mr. Trump is a prolific and sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on political adversaries…” before sanctioning Trump and his lawyer almost $1 million for misusing the courts.

“Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally,” wrote Middlebrooks, “… which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose.”

Speaking of bad faith, vexatious lawsuits plaintiffs Pam Lewis and Diane Rich were dealt a crushing defeat last week. Senior Judge Suzanne Chanti dismissed their allegations of election fraud stemming from the 2022 primary election citing established legal precedent “…the court emphasized that ‘courts cannot issue declaratory judgments in a vacuum; they must resolve an actual or justiciable controversy. To be justiciable, a controversy must involve a dispute based on present facts rather than on contingent or hypothetical events.’”

Lewis and Rich appeared to take a page out of Trump’s abuse of the judicial process playbook first filing suit pro se against Coos County, Commissioners John Sweet and Melissa Cribbins and interim Clerk Dede Murphy. After amending the complaint, the pair eventually hired attorney, Tyler Smith who filed a third amended complaint.

This isn’t Smith’s only failure of late. A recent Oregon Court of Appeals decision involving the so-called 2nd Amendment Sanctuary ordinance Smith was defending in Columbia County deemed the ordinance void. In a notable rebuke of Smith’s arguments in favor of the ordinance Judge James Egan wrote “…thus to the dustbin goes the argument of UN mandates and constitutional sheriffs.”

Again, like Trump, Lewis and Rich used the lawsuit to raise money and setup a fundraising platform falsely claiming to be victims of election fraud and have so far grifted $1,888 from supporters.

To date, no motion for sanctions against the plaintiffs has been filed unlike the Trump-Clinton matter, but when you consider the public resources wasted on this case monetary sanctions would be well deserved.