Pro-Trump lawyer busted for 'bamboozling' voters into signing up for a lawsuit to overturn the election: report

According to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, a pro-Trump lawyer in Minnesota has been fined $10,000 by the court after it emerged she had "bamboozled" voters into signing on as plaintiffs to her case to overturn the presidential election, without their knowledge or consent.

Ramsey County chief district judge Leonardo Castro tore into attorney Susan Shogren Smith from the bench, saying she "perpetrated a fraud against this court and, more importantly, perpetrated a fraud against these plaintiffs."

"Shogren Smith is a member of the MN Election Integrity Team, a conservative group that sought to prevent the state from certifying its election results while President Donald Trump and his allies promoted unfounded claims of election fraud," reported Josh Verges. "On Dec. 1, she filed five complaints in Ramsey County District Court, naming as defendants Secretary of State Steve Simon and the Democratic candidates who won their Congressional races. Those legal challenges were filed in the names of 14 separate voters, at least four of whom had no idea they were participating."

The website for the group behind Shogren Smith's legal effort cites as part of the basis for the suit, "our team determined that ... Dominion Voting systems [were] being used in at least 6 of our 87 counties in Minnesota." Trump and his allies have been pushing baseless conspiracy theories that Dominion equipment switched votes from Trump to Biden, and fabricated votes that didn't exist — claims that have led to Dominion filing a $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News.

"It wasn't until February when Republican activist Corinne Braun discovered her name was connected to one of the cases. She testified Friday that on a whim, she searched her own name in the state's online court records system and was stunned to see the result," said the report. "'To my horror, I saw that I had sued Steve Simon and Ilhan Omar. It was a surreal moment for me,' she said, likening the discovery to finding her car had been broken into." Braun testified she had never agreed to be part of the lawsuit, and had only filled out a form that said her name would be added to a "list of disgruntled voters."

A number of attorneys who have worked on the effort to overturn the election in various states are now facing serious professional and legal jeopardy. "Kraken" attorney Sidney Powell is also being sued by Dominion, and has put forth a dubious legal defense that her election fraud claims were never intended to be taken seriously by a reasonable person. And Lin Wood, another pro-Trump attorney who has attacked the voting process in Georgia, faces potential loss of his law license and — ironically — an investigation by Georgia officials for possible voter fraud.