Panel rules against Gov. Evers seeking court costs over 2020 election lawsuit filed by former La Crosse GOP chair Feehan

Earlier this week, Wisconsin Republicans’ false electors scheme made headlines as part of Donald Trump’s latest indictment.

That plan was brought up again Wednesday in a different light. That’s when a federal court panel of judges ruled in favor of former La Crosse County Republican Party chair Bill Feehan and against Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers.

Essentially, Evers asked the courts to award him attorney fees and costs for a lawsuit brought about by Feehan and his attorney — former Donald Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell — to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin. The panel denied the request, upholding a lower court decision.

Earlier reports noted that the fees were for $107,000 and possibly future payments if more lawsuits were brought about.

Back on Dec. 1, 2020, Feehan, who is still the GOP Party chair of Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, had filed a lawsuit to compel the Wisconsin Elections Commission and Evers to “de-certify” the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Feehan wanted the court to prevent the certification of Wisconsin’s electoral votes for Joe Biden and also from transferring those results to the Electoral College and Congress to be counted on Jan. 6, 2021.

The court, however, dismissed the case, saying it lacked “subject-matter jurisdiction,” and that Feehan “did not have Article III standing to bring the suit, and that much of the requested relief was moot,” the court order states.

Feehan appealed that decision to a federal court and then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court. It was dismissed in federal court, then later denied at the Supreme Court level on March 1, 2021.

A month later, Evers filed for sanctions, arguing Feehan’s lawsuit was legally and factually baseless and asked to recoup the costs.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper initially cited a 1983 case nicknamed Overnite in ruling against Evers recovering those fees.

The governor appealed, asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit to overrule the lower court’s Overnite finding but they declined on Wednesday. The majority said Evers could have moved for sanctions while the case was still pending.

The decision came just days after news that the 10 Republicans pretending to be legit electors in Wisconsin were mentioned multiple times in the Trump indictment. Feehan was one of those false electors.

Also of note, the lawsuit listing Feehan as a plaintiff had at one point listed Derrick Van Orden, but did so without his permission. Van Orden had to take to Twitter saying, “I am not involved in the lawsuit seeking to overturn the election in Wisconsin.”

Van Orden, at that time, had just lost in Wisconsin’s 3rd US House District race to Ron Kind. Two years later, the Republican won the open seat and now represents that district, where Feehan remains party chair.