DETROIT (Legal Newsline) – President Donald Trump supporters have dropped litigation claiming election fraud in Detroit under threat of sanctions – and will now wait to see if they will be forced to pay the other side’s attorneys fees.
Plaintiffs led by former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell dropped the case shortly after Detroit asked federal judge Linda Parker to sanction them – and after President-Elect Joe Biden’s win was certified by Congress. The defendants have argued Powell’s cases in Michigan and other hotly contested states were “devoid of any factual or legal merit.”
On Jan. 14, the plaintiffs filed their notices of voluntary dismissal against entities like Detroit, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Democratic Party.
The dismissal of claims against Robert Davis, a Wayne County voter who has also asked for sanctions, contained an email exchange regarding the attorneys fees issue.
After a few back-and-forths, lawyer Drew Paterson told plaintiffs’ lawyer Stefanie Lambert Junttila “my client will not consent to the voluntary dismissal of the case without the payment of attorneys fees. Thus, we will leave it to the judge to determine whether the payment of attorneys fees will be part of the terms to allow for the voluntary dismissal of your complaint and whether she will allow the filing of the counterclaim against your clients.”
Junttila responded simply “We do not agree to pay attorney fees and costs” on Jan. 15. She filed the dismissal two days later.
Judge Parker declared “The People have spoken,” when she refused to grant an injunction against the results of the Michigan vote.
Trump-backers claimed Wayne County was a hotbed of fraud. Their lawsuit says the companies that provided election software and hardware were founded by foreign dictators intent on manipulating elections that would keep Hugo Chavez in power in Venezuela.
“If granted, the relief would disenfranchise the votes of the more than 5.5 million Michigan citizens who, with dignity, hope and a promise of a voice, participated in the 2020 general election,” Parker wrote.
Parker says the plaintiffs failed to back their claims that votes for Trump were destroyed, discarded or otherwise tampered with.
“The closest Plaintiffs get to alleging that election machines and software changed votes for President Trump to Vice President Biden in Wayne County is an amalgamation of theories, conjecture and speculation that such alterations were possible,” Parker wrote.
“And Plaintiffs do not at all explain how the question of whether the treatment of election challengers complied with state law bears on the validity of votes, or otherwise establishes an equal protection claim.”