The Daily Fuckup

Donald Trump’s post-election campaign was not just a political argument by April 8, 2021. It was also generating legal exposure that could be measured in dollars and new plaintiffs.

In Wisconsin, lawyers for Gov. Tony Evers asked a court to order Trump to pay $144,000 in attorneys’ fees tied to a failed challenge over the state’s 2020 election results. The request did not mean Trump had already paid. It meant the losing side in the case was still trying to push the cost of the fight back onto the people who brought it.

The other case was in federal court in Washington, where a lawsuit filed by Rep. Bennie Thompson over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack was already pending before April 7, 2021. On that day, ten House members joined the existing suit, adding more lawmakers to a civil case that blames Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for the attack.

Taken together, the two developments showed how the aftermath of the 2020 election was still moving through court. One filing sought money for a dead-end election challenge. The other broadened a lawsuit built around Trump’s role in the Capitol riot. The politics were still raging, but the paper trail was getting thicker.