Michigan officials are demanding more than $200,000 in legal fees from pro-Trump lawyers led by Sidney Powell who unsuccessfully tried to overturn the 2020 election result with a lawsuit dismissed as full of conspiracies, it emerged on Thursday.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker ruled that state and local election officials could claim reimbursement of their legal fees.
The judge will now review the $200,000 in requests submitted to the court on Wednesday.
In an August ruling, Parker laid bare her anger about what she said was a sham lawsuit intended to deceive the court and the public.
'Despite the haze of confusion, commotion and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs´ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way,' Parker wrote in a blistering 110-page opinion.
'Sanctions are required to deter the filing of future frivolous lawsuits designed primarily to spread the narrative that our election processes are rigged and our democratic institutions cannot be trusted.'
Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and other attorneys face a bill for as much as $200,000 after a judge said they must meet the legal bills of state and local election officials stemming from their unsuccessful legal challenge to President Biden's 2020 victory
Lin Wood is one of the lawyers who headed up legal challenges to the 2020 election result
Trump lost to Biden by 154,000 votes in Michigan in last year's election. Pro-Trump lawyers brought a lawsuit on behalf of six Republican voters but it was dismissed in December
Their lawsuit was filed days after Biden's 154,000-vote victory was certified.
It was brought to the court on behalf of six Republican voters who wanted Parker to decertify Michigan's results and impound voting machines. The judge declined in December, calling the request 'stunning in its scope and breathtaking in its reach.'
It was one of four legal actions by Powell collectively known as the 'Kraken' lawsuits, including allegations that George Soros, Venezuela and China among others tried to tamper with US voting machines.
Parker ordered that each of nine pro-Trump lawyers - including Powell, a former campaign lawyer for Trump, and prominent litigator Lin Wood - receive 12 hours of legal education, including six hours of election law.
They also face possible disciplinary action in the states where they are licensed.
Parker also ordered the attorneys - including Powell, a former campaign lawyer for Trump, and prominent litigator Lin Wood - to pay back the legal fees the city of Detroit and Michigan state officials spent while seeking sanctions.
Most of the $200,000 was requested by the City of Detroit, which said it spent about $180,000 on a private law firm - which charged $325 an hour for its senior partners - to help fight the case. The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also for about $20,000.
Wood (pictured with Trump in March 2020) and Powell are not the first attorneys to be punished over their 2020 lawsuits. Rudy Giuliani had his law license temporarily suspended in New York and Washington D.C. for his election fraud lawsuits
Powell made clear she would fight the costs.
'The fees sought against us by the City of Detroit were completely self-inflicted. The City was not a party in the case but intervened to create litigation,' she said in a statement to the Detroit Free Press.
'We will indeed appeal. The judge's opinion is riddled with error of fact and law.'
It is the latest blow to the rag tag band of lawyers who tried to overturn Trump's defeat.
Rudy Giuliani had his law license temporarily suspended in New York and Washington D.C. for his election fraud lawsuits.
Giuliani, Powell and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell are being sued by Dominion Voting Systems for 2020 fraud claims centering around their equipment.
Dominion is seeking $1.3 billion from each of them in separate lawsuits.
Last month, all three Trump allies lost a bid to dismiss those suits in a US district court.
'But it is simply not the law that provably false statements cannot be actionable if made in the context of an election,' Judge Carl Nichols said in a statement.
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