Taxpayers were left with the bill for more than $800,000 worth of legal fees after Democrats moved to overturn the results of an Iowa election won by Republican congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, congressional records show.
House Democrats took advantage of a provision they tucked into this year’s rules package to use government money to challenge the results of the Iowa election in the Committee on House Administration. The Democrats on the committee paid high-priced law firm Jenner & Block a total of $699,294 to lead their attempt to overturn the election results, which had already been officially certified by Iowa’s secretary of state after a recount. Republicans on the committee retained law firm Jones Day to respond to the challenge, paying it a substantially smaller sum of $126,942, according to committee records requested by the Washington Free Beacon.
Miller-Meeks’s victory over Democratic nominee Rita Hart was never seriously in doubt, even with her small six-vote margin of victory. Several Democrats urged party leadership to drop the challenge, citing concerns that it undermined their criticism of former president Donald Trump questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), however, stood by the decision to challenge the results through the House committee, all on the taxpayer dime.