Dear Listener,

I have another comment to make about the Kraken lawyers, now that U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker of the Eastern District of Michigan has imposed sanctions on Sidney Powell and her merry band of bad barristers for bringing frivolous and utterly unvetted allegations in federal court. The Court’s order is unsparing and makes for good reading.

What struck me most, though, was not the point-by-point destruction of the Kraken lawyers’ frivolous defenses of their frivolous legal claims. Rather, it was the judge’s compelling depiction of the court of law, a forum necessarily above and apart from the roiling, unregulated venues where bad faith debate is commonplace:

“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.”