Wisconsin Governor Asks Court to Force Sidney Powell, Trump to Pay Over $100,000 in Legal Fees

Lawyer Sidney Powell speaks to media while flanked by President Donald Trump lawyer and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (L) and Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis at a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, on Nov. 19, 2020. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on March 31 asked a federal court to force lawyer Sidney Powell and her client to pay more than $106,000 in legal fees over a lawsuit regarding the state’s presidential election results, and he’s seeking $144,000 from former President Donald Trump and his lawyers, according to court filings.

“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,” attorneys for Evers said in court papers (pdf) filed last week.

“This litigation imposed significant costs on the taxpayers of Wisconsin,” the attorneys said about Trump in separate court papers. “Those costs were needless, because Trump’s suit never had any merit, this litigation was precluded by exclusive state-court proceedings, and the costs were exacerbated by strategic choices made by Trump and his lawyers.”

Powell and Trump’s team didn’t immediately respond to requests by The Epoch Times for comment.

“We deny the claims,” said William Bock, a lawyer representing Trump, according to Reuters. “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.”

Powell told Forbes magazine that Evers’s request in court was “baseless, improper, and out of time.”

“The case is closed,” she said.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court rejected Powell’s lawsuit in Wisconsin and Arizona. Writing on March 1, the high court issued a one-sentence order: “The petitions for writs of mandamus are denied.”

One of Powell’s mandamus petitions had stated: “A submission directly to this Court seeking an extraordinary writ of mandamus is unusual, but it has its foundation. While such relief is rare, this Court will grant it ‘where a question of public importance is involved, or where the question is of such a nature that it is peculiarly appropriate that such action by this Court should be taken.’”

In February, Powell announced that she launched a super PAC dedicated to freedom of speech, constitutional rights, and fair elections.

“The American people deserve a voice that exposes and rejects the self-interest of political parties, the control of tech giants, and the lies of the fake news,” she announced at the time of the creation of her Restore the Republic Super PAC.

Powell had filed a number of third-party, election-related lawsuits following the Nov. 3, 2020, contest in a bid to help Trump. She appeared alongside then-Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis at a news conference in November last year before Giuliani confirmed about a week later that she wasn’t part of their team.