Federal judge tells lawyers to pay in US election fraud case

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has ordered two lawyers who filed a class action lawsuit alleging the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump to pay more than $180,000 in attorney’s fees for the defendants. U.S. Magistrate Judge N. Reid Neureiter said the lawsuit was a publicity stunt to manipulate “gullible members of the public” and helped spur the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The judge stayed the awards pending an appeal of the lawsuit, which relied on baseless conspiracy theories spread by the former president and his supporters. It named elected officials in four swing states, Facebook, the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg and Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, whose election machines were at the center of some of the most fevered speculation.