Sidney Powell Gets $100,000 Bill From Wisconsin: Governor Demands Legal Fees Over Election Lawsuit
Topline
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers asked a federal court Wednesday to force far-right attorney Sidney Powell and her client and co-counsel to be sanctioned and pay more than $100,000 in legal fees over a failed lawsuit that sought to overturn the state’s presidential results, as Powell and other lawyers who led failed post-election cases now face blowback and potential consequences across the country.
Sidney Powell conducts a news conference at the Republican National Committee on November 19, 2020. … [+]
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Key Facts
Evers asked for the La Crosse County Republican Party chairman who brought the case, as well as Powell and other attorneys, to pay $106,780 in attorneys fees the state incurred while defending themselves against the lawsuit, which failed in both a lower court and at the U.S. Supreme Court.
In an email to Forbes, Powell said Evers’ request was “baseless, improper, and out of time,” adding, “The case is closed.”
In addition to the attorneys fees, Evers also asked the court to sanction the plaintiffs and counsel, which he asked to be through paying a fine either to the court or to a voting rights organization in Wisconsin.
The lawsuit was filed “without the support of credible, relevant, or remotely admissible evidence,” Evers’ attorneys wrote, and was “based entirely upon inadmissible, outlandish, and speculative testimony” that alleged widespread voter fraud but “obviously lacked any plausible or factual basis.”
The “slapdash” lawsuit should also be punished because it was riddled with errors, Evers alleged, including originally naming a co-plaintiff who did not actually want to join the litigation, requesting relief for a vote counting center in a different state and fabricating a quote from a judge as evidence to support their argument.
Crucial Quote
“The audacity of this lawsuit—an attack on the bedrock principle that ballots decide elections, brought without any legal or factual basis almost four weeks after the election—merits sanctions,” the filing argues. “A message must be sent that this type of behavior cannot be tolerated in the judicial system, and that attorneys should avoid these types of frivolous attempts to disenfranchise voters in the future.”
Tangent
In addition to the Powell case, Evers also filed a separate request Wednesday in former President Donald Trump’s post-election federal lawsuit against the state, which similarly asks the court to sanction the ex-president and his counsel and for them to pay $145,174.90 in attorney fees. “There is no doubt that Trump and his attorneys brought and litigated this lawsuit in bad faith,” the governor’s attorneys argued.
Key Background
Powell led a series of failed post-election lawsuits in battleground states that alleged widespread voter fraud and sought to overturn the election results. She and other Trump allies are now being sued for defamation by voting companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic for pushing fraud claims involving their machines in the lawsuits and in public statements. In addition to the Wisconsin filing, state and local officials in Michigan are also seeking to have the attorney sanctioned and disbarred over her lawsuit in that state, and an ethics complaint has been filed against her and other lawyers in Arizona. Beyond Powell, other GOP attorneys involved in Trump and his allies’ failed legal campaign to overturn the election are also facing consequences: Georgia counties have asked the court to force Trump and his attorneys to pay nearly $17,000 in legal fees, a judge has referred a lawyer to a disciplinary panel over his lawsuit and the Arizona GOP was forced to pay $18,000 in legal fees over an election lawsuit. Attorney Lin Wood, who worked with Powell on multiple post-election cases and is now representing her in the Dominion lawsuit, is also now facing investigations from state bars in Georgia and Arizona.
Further Reading
Sidney Powell’s Remaining ‘Kraken’ Cases Thrown Out By Supreme Court (Forbes)
Arizona GOP Must Pay $18,000 In Legal Fees For Failed Election Lawsuit (Forbes)
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