A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a fine of nearly $1 million against President Trump and his attorney Alina Habba, affirming that they engaged in “sanctionable conduct” by filing a “frivolous” lawsuit against his political rivals.

In a unanimous 36-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that many of the legal arguments presented by Mr. Trump and Ms. Habba were without merit.

“Many of Trump’s and Habba’s legal arguments were indeed frivolous,” wrote Chief Judge William Pryor Jr. The term “frivolous” indicates that the claims were fictitious and likely intended to harass or embarrass the defendants. 

“Even setting aside the tolling arguments, the district court ruled that Trump brought several frivolous claims, including a “malicious prosecution claim without a prosecution,” and a “trade secret claim without a trade secret,” the judge wrote.

Judge Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, was joined in the decision by Trump-appointee Andrew Brasher and Biden-appointee Embry Kidd.

“Because Trump’s remaining claims are untimely and otherwise meritless, we affirm the dismissal of the amended complaint with prejudice for the other defendants. And because Trump and his attorneys committed sanctionable conduct and forfeited their procedural objections, we affirm both sanctions orders,” Judge Pryor wrote.

The ruling stems from a 2022 lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump against Hillary Clinton, FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee, and others. The suit accused them of a racketeering conspiracy to create false claims that his 2016 presidential campaign had collaborated with Russia.

In January 2023, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks dismissed the case and ordered Mr. Trump and Ms. Habba to jointly pay $932,989.39 to cover the defendants’ legal fees. 

In his ruling, Judge Pryor referenced the district court’s findings that Trump had made a “malicious prosecution claim without a prosecution” and a “trade secret claim without a trade secret,” among other baseless claims. “Trump and Habba give us no reason to reverse the district court’s ruling that these claims were frivolous,” Judge Pryor wrote.

The appeals court also agreed with the lower court’s assessment of Mr. Trump’s legal history, noting that the district court “did not clearly err” in determining that he had shown a “pattern of misusing the courts.”

This decision marks another legal defeat for Mr. Trump. Last week, a different 11th Circuit panel dismissed his $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN for its use of the term “the Big Lie.” In September, a federal judge also dismissed his $15 billion defamation suit against The New York Times.