From the NYT:

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, has been forced to spend half a million dollars defending himself in court for having stood up to former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The only way to spare himself from the defamation lawsuit he has been fighting, he and his lawyer say, would be to lie.

The lawsuit centers on a 2020 video that purported to show election fraud in Georgia. The video, which was presented to state lawmakers, showed security footage of election workers tabulating ballots in Atlanta. Multiple news media outlets and the secretary of state’s office have debunked the claims of election fraud made in the video presentation to legislators….

Mr. Raffensperger fears that the lawsuit could be a harbinger of a new kind of harassment: wealthy activists burying election officials in costly litigation as a form of coercion….

“I have incurred over $500,000 in legal fees to fight these frivolous claims,” Mr. Raffensperger said in a statement. “Not every election official is going to be able to withstand that type of pressure,” he said. “This should send alarms to every election official across the country.”