Election 2020: Judge questions attorneys over minor fraud claims at Michigan hearing on possible penalties

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The judge repeatedly asked on Monday how much work the lawyers had done to verify the fraud allegations. In response, many have argued that they do not need to do so, if witnesses believe what they are saying is true. The lawyers who brought it said the fact-finding could be conducted while the case was in progress.

At one point, Parker, who was sitting in the Eastern District of Michigan, asked the nine attorneys involved in filing the suit if they had followed the suit to see if any of their so-called witnesses had actually witnessed the voting change.

No one answered. “Let the record reflect,” Parker replied, noting their silence.

“There has to be a minimum belief on the part of the attorney that these are … rooted in reality,” Parker said. The judge added that “every lawyer has a duty” to do minimal research to verify evidence presented in court.

release the kraken

Dozens of lawsuits after Trump lost the election have raised baseless allegations of fraud, seeking to annul Joe Biden’s victory.

The lawsuits – especially the case in Michigan – were a major early attempt by Trump to claim that the outcome of the presidential election in November was illegitimate. His team and supporters – sometimes represented by right-wing figures Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and others – have lost all attempts in court to gain momentum in voter fraud.

More than a dozen lawyers appeared at Monday’s hearing after a judge set it to determine whether they had filed a frivolous case or made false allegations. Possible consequences of a judge making this decision or referring the matter for further disciplinary action include lawyers losing their ability to practice law.

Lawyers, including Powell and Lynne Wood, described their efforts as releasing the “kraken,” named after the mythical sea monster.

Kraken’s team said in court on Monday that they put together a “pattern” of supposed witness statements supporting the possibility of ballot fraud.

“I will present, your honor, this is not fiction,” Attorney Julia Haller told the judge, defending a witness testimony that was filled with speculative statements about a couple delivering plastic bags with the US Postal Service in Plymouth, Michigan. The testimony included statements such as “it was like” and “what could be in those bags,” and the witness, Matt Siantar, indicated he thought the scene “looked strange,” without providing further information.

Haller described it as “a true affidavit”. “That would be what is believed to be true,” she added.

The judge replied, “This is pure speculation. Well, go ahead.”

Powell, one of the group’s most famous lawyers, spoke very little. When she spoke at length at the end of the proceedings, she said she took full responsibility for the filings in the case and felt a duty to the state to file allegations of electoral fraud in 2020.

Correspondence versus legal work

It is unlikely that a decision on whether the lawyers should be sanctioned for at least two weeks, after the judge has given each of them another round to present their arguments, will be issued in writing.

The Detroit city attorney argued that the lawsuit was only intended to spread lies about the election: “This lawsuit was used to delegitimize Joe Biden’s presidency,” attorney David Fink said in court.

The city, as well as the state of Michigan, asked the court to punish the lawyers who brought the case.

“This was, from start to finish, an attempt to get a message across that was extrajudicial. We couldn’t find a legal basis for what they were trying to do,” Fink said earlier at the hearing. “What they presented” in the case “was an embarrassment to the legal profession.”

Howard Kleinhendler, who was the architect of the fraud lawsuit alongside Powell, said he “categorically” rejected it as a publicity stunt for Trump. The judge, during the hearing, also pressed the attorneys to explain why they believed the court could intervene in election weeks after the vote, rather than using the usual process for a recount — and why they did not dismiss the lawsuit after the vote. It has been ratified by the state and Congress.

The answers were often vacillating, with Kraken’s lawyers suggesting that they believed they could have replaced the Electoral College’s slate going to Congress, and that they believed they had the right to challenge the election in court.

On occasion, Powell, Haller, and others have asked the court for more opportunities to gather evidence and to question witnesses who gave them in court to believe there was fraud.

In their defense on Monday, lawyers for Team Kraken cited Bush v. Gore, the 2000 Supreme Court that halted the recount and testified to George W. Bush’s victory in the presidency, as a reason for Trump supporters to try to set aside the vote count through the courts.

Lane Wood distances himself from Kraken

During the hearing, Wood, a celebrity lawyer who has become a right-wing figure in recent years, appeared to turn on his colleagues, and distanced himself from their work when he spoke to the judge.

Wood said he was not involved and did not expressly agree to help with the Michigan election fraud lawsuit. He said in court on Monday that he was named in the lawsuit because other pro-Trump lawyers included him.

“I don’t remember specifically being asked about the Michigan complaint, but I generally referred to Sidney Powell…I would be willing and available to help her,” Wood said. “Obviously my skills were never needed, so I never got involved in that.”

Several times during the hearing, Wood tried to speak with others, including the judge, to defend himself.

At one point, a court reporter who was recording the hearing raised her voice to cut him off, saying she couldn’t pick up the words spoken at the hearing with so much talking outside of school.

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