The legal saga involving failed efforts to undo the 2020 election recorded an unusual new chapter recently in Ramsey County.
For more than three months, at least one of several lawsuits contesting the election’s outcome in Minnesota carried the names of citizens who were unaware that they had been named as plaintiffs in the case.
Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro slapped Minneapolis attorney Susan Shogren Smith with a $10,000 fine after concluding she “bamboozled” three Twin Cities voters into being part of the unsuccessful litigation.
According to testimony at a virtual hearing last month, plaintiff Corinne Braun described her shock upon searching for her name in a court records database only to find she was part of a lawsuit against Secretary of State Steve Simon and U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar. “All of this was nothing I wanted anything to do with,” Braun said.
The suit was one of numerous cases filed by Smith on behalf of the Minnesota Election Integrity Team, a group assembled after the election. Smith filed lawsuits against Simon and Democratic members of Congress.
Smith’s lawsuits claimed “countless irregularities” in the election but offered no evidence of widespread fraud and failed to garner court action. No state or federal court challenge to the 2020 election results has produced such evidence. U.S. intelligence, federal law enforcement and election officials have verified the integrity of the vote.