A federal judge in Colorado on Monday ordered two pro-Trump lawyers who launched one of MAGAland’s many lawsuits aiming to undo the 2020 election to hand over $186,922 in attorneys fees to the defendants in their suit, including Dominion Voting Systems and Facebook.
The lawyers, Gary Fielder and Ernest John Walker, were also ordered to pay the legal fees of election reform advocacy group Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), plus the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter slammed Fielder and Walker in his ruling for filing a “wasteful, extraordinarily over broad, and dangerous” lawsuit.
Neureiter noted that the lawyers hadn’t hired any elections experts to back up their claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
The judge also asserted that the suit was used to “manipulate gullible members of the public and foment public unrest.”
“To that extent, this lawsuit has been an abuse of the legal system and an interference with the machinery of government,” he wrote.
Fielder and Walker are “experienced lawyers” who “should have known better,” Neureiter stated. “They need to take responsibility for their misconduct.”
Under the order, Fielder and Walker have to pay several hefty fees: $62,930 to Dominion, $62,930 to CTCL, $50,000 to Facebook, $4,900 to Michigan and $6,162.50 to Pennsylvania.
Neureiter sanctioned the two attorneys back in August for pursuing “bad faith” litigation by not doing any real research to bolster their arguments that the election had been rigged against Donald Trump.
The judge’s order adds Fielder and Walker to the motley crew of MAGA lawyers who’ve been penalized for trying to weaponize the courts with flimsy lawsuits to undermine the election on Trump’s behalf. Sidney Powell, Lin Wood and the rest of the “Kracken” team have been similarly ordered to pay attorneys fees for the city of Detroit and Michigan, and have been referred for disbarment.
Conservative legal scholar John Eastman is also facing a disbarment complaint from a nonpartisan election integrity group for devising a dollar store House of Cards plot for then-Vice President Mike Pence to meddle with the 2020 electoral vote count and throw it to Trump.
Read Neureiter’s ruling below:
They’ll likely declare biz-bankruptcy, dodge the fine, and re-incorporate under some new entity.
It’s what cockroaches do.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. More judges should be doing this.
Possibly. But this is their ticket to practice law on the line.
Technically, they’ve been referred to their respective states’ disciplinary organizations, who can choose punishments less than full disbarment, including no punishment at all.
That’s a chunk of change… hey, maybe TFG will chip in!