By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – Wisconsin’s Democratic Governor Tony Evers has asked a federal judge to order Donald Trump to cover $145,000 in legal fees the state spent to defend against the former Republican president’s unsuccessful effort to overturn its 2020 election results.
In a filing in Milwaukee federal court on Wednesday, Evers’ lawyers said there was “no doubt that Trump and his attorneys brought and litigated this lawsuit in bad faith.”
“Unconscionably, they did so for the purpose of sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, with a goal of disenfranchising nearly 3.3 million Wisconsin voters in order to secure the presidency contrary to majority will,” they wrote.
The lawsuit, one of dozens Trump filed in courts around the country, had claimed that alleged flaws in Wisconsin election procedures meant the results of its presidential election, which awarded the state’s 10 electoral votes to Democratic President Joe Biden, should be thrown out.
“Simply put, 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,” Evers’ lawyers said.
“We deny the claims,” said William Bock, a lawyer representing Trump in the case. “They’re attacking in the pleadings my motives and the motives of my partners, of which they know nothing. The statements made about our motives were absolutely false.”
Bock said he would respond to the motion within 21 days.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
