Two pro-Trump lawyers who filed a baseless election-fraud lawsuit last year must cough up $180,000 to the defendants they sued as part of what a judge has dismissed as “one enormous conspiracy theory.” Attorneys Gary D. Fielder and Ernest John Walker filed a lawsuit against eight named plaintiffs in December 2020 as part of their futile attempts to create a class-action challenge to the election. CNN reports that Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter told the pair in an order Monday: “I believe that rather than a legitimate use of the legal system to seek redress for redressable grievances, this lawsuit has been used to manipulate gullible members of the public and foment public unrest. To that extent, this lawsuit has been an abuse of the legal system and an interference with the machinery of government.” Neutreiter ruled that Fielder and Walker will have to pay attorney fees of $50,000 to Facebook, $63,000 to Dominion Voting Systems, $63,000 to the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life, over $6,000 to the state of Pennsylvania, and nearly $5,000 to the state of Michigan.
