Two Georgia counties are looking to get their money money back following the “frivolous” and “baseless” voter fraud lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump.
According to a report by CNN, both DeKalb and Cobb Counties filed lawsuits seeking to get the money they spent sending lawyers to court in response to Trump’s lawsuit filed during the presidential election. County officials are looking to get the legal fees from Trump and Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer.
Trump and Shafer “continued to pursue this litigation after the election contest became moot, all without legal justification,” the motion filed by attorneys on behalf of Erica Hamilton, DeKalb county’s director of voter registration and elections, reportedly states.
DeKalb, part of the metro-Atlanta area that helped push Joe Biden to victory in the battleground, reportedly spent $6,105 to battle Trump in court over “unsubstantiated and harassing claims,” the suit reportedly says.
Cobb County is looking to recoup $10,875 in legal fees, but says it’s “just a fraction” of what it and 15 other counties spent in court, according to the documents.
Trump is also under investigation in Atlanta for his alleged attempts at influencing election results in the election when he called Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and demanded he “find” votes to take the state.
Trump and Shafer filed their lawsuit in December in the Fulton Superior Court, naming the Georgia State Election Board, Raffensperger, and 15 county supervisors in their petition.
“Petitioners apparently believed that they could file their baseless and legally deficient actions with impunity, with no regard for the costs extracted from the taxpayers’ coffers or the consequences to the democratic foundations of our country,” a brief filed by Daniel White, an attorney representing the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration and county Elections Department Director Janine Eveler, stated.
White told CNN that other counties in the state are considering filing similar court motions. Trump’s legal pursuits forced the state to recount approximately five millions ballots for a third time, after Biden won by 11,779 votes.
Over the course of the election and its aftermath, Trump and other Republicans lost over 40 legal battles around the country that sought to challenge the results, per CNN. The outlet said neither Trump nor Shafer responded with comment on these latest lawsuits.
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