In connection with a failed lawsuit accusing numerous NGOs of a canceled speech in Southern California, a number of civil rights organizations are requesting hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and former attorney general candidate Matt Gaetz.

As previously noted, Greene, a Republican from Georgia, and Gaetz, a Republican representative from Florida until this month, are both viewed as belonging to the right-wing and pro-Trump wings of the party. They sued the cities of Riverside and Anaheim over a July 2021 political gathering.

U.S. District Judge Hernan Vera vehemently rejected attempts to sue groups like the NAACP, LULAC, the League of Women Voters, and other local entities as both legally and literally, a conspiracy theory that is based solely on speculation, even though the court permitted the lawsuit against the municipalities to proceed.

Gaetz, Greene, and several related political groups agreed to dismiss the lawsuit late last month with the defendant cities and a hospitality corporation that was still a defendant.

The plaintiffs and defendants agreed that each party would pay their own legal fees and costs in the agreement requesting the dismissal of the action with prejudice, which was filed in the Central District of California on October 28.

The NGOs that were previously sued are now essentially saying, “Not so fast.”

Vera returned to the case on November 12 and issued a second order, allowing the prevailing defendants until November 20 to submit requests for attorneys’ fees, even though the court had approved the petition to dismiss on October 30.

On Wednesday night, six nonprofit groups submitted five different motions for attorneys’ fees, along with numerous supporting documents.

The defendants are asking Gaetz and Greene for a total of over $548,000 in legal fees and charges.

The NAACP is requesting almost $184,000 in funding. LULAC organizations in California are requesting somewhat less than $155,000. The League of Women Voters is requesting about $112,000 in funding.

Unidos for La Causa is requesting $53,000. A total of $43,800 is being sought by Women’s March Action and the Riverside Democratic Party.

The March order eliminating the nonprofit defendants from the case is a key part of their plea argument.

According to the League of Women Voters’ request, the court rejected the plaintiffs’ first amended complaint as fatally flawed without granting them permission to make any changes. The plaintiffs’ allegations against the League were baseless, irrational, and unfounded.

Another motion cites the frivolousness of the original lawsuit as the basis for the defendants initial victory, noting that the original petition alleged a conspiracy without offering a single factual allegation to support the claim.

The Unidos motion emphasizes one of the court s descriptions of the Gaetz-Greene case (emphasis in original):

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