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Georgia Counties Sue Trump for Expenses From His Failed Voting Fraud Suit

Two Atlanta-area counties filed lawsuits against former President Donald Trump this week, seeking legal fees in his campaign's failed voting fraud lawsuit against state election officials.

ATLANTA (CN) — Two Atlanta-area counties filed lawsuits against former President Donald Trump this week, seeking legal fees in his campaign's failed voting fraud lawsuit against state election officials.

Cobb County filed a motion in Fulton County Superior Court on Monday, followed by DeKalb County filing a similar motion against Trump and Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer.

Cobb County’s Director of Registration and Elections Janine Eveler and DeKalb County’s Erica Hamilton were among a dozen of others named in the original complaint, which was filed in Fulton County Superior Court in December. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger was also listed as a defendant.

The Trump campaign filed similar legal actions that failed in several other states.

“Given the number of failed lawsuits filed by the former President and his campaign, Petitioners apparently believed that they could filed their baseless and legally deficient actions with impunity, with no regard for the costs extracted from the taxpayers’ coffers of the consequences to the democratic foundations of our country,” the motion states.

The Georgia lawsuit alleged widespread voter fraud in the Peach State and challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election that Democrat Joe Biden won with the help of voters of Cobb County and DeKalb County.

Biden won Cobb County with 56.35% of the vote, and in DeKalb County he received 83.12% of the vote. A statewide recount confirmed Biden’s victory.

Trump called Raffensberger, who recorded the conversation, pressuring him to “find” 11,000 votes to overturn Georgia’s election results in favor of Trump, who is now being investigated for attempted election interference.

Cobb County’s motion, written by attorney Daniel White of Haynie, Litchfield & White, contends Eveler was improperly named a defendant.

“If you’re going to challenge an election, you’re supposed to name the county superintendent of elections,” White states in the motion. “And Georgia law is pretty clear that, in the case of Cobb County, that’s the Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, that’s not the election department manager.”

The motion calls the lawsuit “baseless and legally deficient” with “impunity, with no regard for the costs extracted from the taxpayers’ coffers or the consequences to the democratic foundations of our country.”

“[Trump’s] claims were so bereft of factual and legal support that it cannot reasonably be believed that a court would accept them,” the motion states.

The brief goes on to assert that Trump’s lawsuit did not provide specific examples of illegally cast ballots or other voter fraud in Georgia.

“Rather Petitioners offer only wild theories, facially invalid claims and questionable ‘buckets of votes,” the motion says.

According to the DeKalb motion, the lawsuit “repeats unsubstantiated and frivolous claims of violations of state laws and regulations related to voter, registration, absentee ballot processing, signature matching, and improper limits on the public and election monitors during the tabulation of the votes and the recount.”

Cobb accuses the Trump campaign of dragging out the process of serving the parties “so they might continue their political strategy of creating chaos and discord in the weeks leading up to January 6, 2021.”

The Trump campaign dropped the lawsuit on Jan. 7, a day after Congress certified the election results after Trump incited an insurrection at the Capitol as an attempt to thwart the proceedings.

Cobb is seeking $10,875 in attorneys’ fees while DeKalb is asking for $6,105. Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Categories / Government, Law, Politics

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