Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach could use a little credibility at the moment. President Trump’s so-called election-integrity commission, of which he is the de facto chief, has come under suspicion for both its methods and its purpose. But citizens seeking assurance about Kobach’s motives won’t find that from the federal courts.

In a ruling yesterday, flagged by the indefatigable Rick Hasen, Judge Julie Robinson of the U.S. District Court of Kansas rejected Kobach’s request that she overturn a $1,000 fine levied on him by a U.S. magistrate judge. That wasn’t the most significant part of the ruling. Over 13 pages, Robinson carefully lays out ways in which Kobach appeared to be playing fast and loose with the facts in the lower court. And in affirming Magistrate Judge James O’Hara’s fine, she became the second federal judge to deem Kobach at the very least misleading in his court appearances:

The undersigned echoes Judge O’Hara’s warning in the Order compelling production that “when any lawyer takes an unsupportable position in a simple matter such as this, it hurts his or her credibility when the court considers arguments on much more complex and nuanced matters.” … These are not the only two statements made or positions taken by Secretary Kobach that have called his credibility into question.

Robinson, a George W. Bush appointee, continued that “these examples… demonstrate a pattern, which gives further credence to Judge O’Hara’s conclusion that a sanctions award is necessary to deter defense counsel in this case from misleading the Court about the facts and record in the future.”

In the dry language of federal courts—a federal judge is unlikely to call a statewide official a liar—that’s a stinging judgment on Kobach’s honesty.

The case in question involves, of course, voting rights and accusations of fraud. The ACLU brought a lawsuit in 2016 on behalf of Kansans whose voter-registration applications had been canceled based on a regulation issued by Kobach. The secretary has established himself as a crusader for tougher voting laws, alleging massive (but entirely undemonstrated) voting fraud. He has collected unprecedented power to prosecute fraud cases in Kansas, and has consulted other states nationally on ways to make it harder to vote. The ACLU alleged that Kobach’s rule violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, better known as “Motor Voter,” which requires that states give citizens the opportunity to register to vote when they get a driver’s license, because the rule required they return with additional documentation.