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DETROIT (AP) – A federal judge is considering ordering financial or other sanctions against some of former President Donald Trump’s lawyers who signed a lawsuit last year challenging the results of the Michigan election.
The lawsuit alleging widespread fraud was voluntarily dropped after a judge in December found only “speculation and conjecture” that the votes for Trump were somehow destroyed or replaced by votes for Joe Biden, who won Michigan by 2.8 percentage points.
Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the City of Detroit now want plaintiffs and a range of lawyers, including Trump allies Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, to face the consequences of pursuing what they call claims frivolous.
“It was never about winning on the merits of the demands, but rather (the) aim was to undermine the integrity of the election results and the people’s confidence in the electoral process and in the government,” the office said. of the Attorney General in a court case. .
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker in Detroit is holding a videoconference hearing on Monday.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 elections. Indeed, electoral officials from both political parties publicly declared that the elections went well and international observers confirmed that there were no serious irregularities.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six Republican voters who wanted Parker to revoke the certification of Michigan’s election results and confiscate the voting machines. The judge refused, calling the request “superb in scope and breathtaking in scope”.
The case appeared to be primarily handled by lawyers in the Detroit area. But the lawsuit also bore the names of Powell, Wood, and four other attorneys from outside Michigan.
The roles of Powell and Wood are unclear; they never filed a formal appearance in the case, according to the record. But they were targeted in the demand for sanctions.
Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, also a Democrat, want the state to receive at least $ 11,000 in legal fees. Detroit is asking the judge to return all the money lawyers raised from a post-election fundraising campaign. The city also wants lawyers to be subject to disciplinary hearings in their respective states.
In response, lawyer Stefanie Lambert Junttila insisted that there was ample evidence to support the trial.
“They are a new form of political retaliation,” she said of possible sanctions. “Such an abuse of the law has no place in this court and is against the law which it is hypocritically relying on.”
In New York, Rudy Giuliani was suspended to practice law because he made false statements while trying to get the courts to overturn Trump’s electoral defeat.
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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwritez
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