The chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and her colleagues have been ordered to pay $58,000 in legal fees after unsuccessfully suing to prevent thousands of mail-in ballots from being counted in the 2022 midterms.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny handed down his ruling on Monday, calling the Republicans' lawsuit "frivolous." GOP Chair Kristina Karamo, who lost the election for Michigan secretary of state in November and refused to concede afterwards, must now cover attorney’s fees for the Detroit clerk’s office as compensation.

Also implicated were Daniel Hartman, counsel for the state party; and Alexandria Taylor, who is currently running for the state's U.S. Senate seat. The election observers who denied the 2020 results were also ordered to help pay the fine.

“Plaintiffs merely threw out the allegation of ‘corruption in Detroit’ as the reason for disregarding the Michigan Constitution in this state’s largest city,” Kenny said Monday, via The Detroit Free Press. “A blanket assertion of corruption does not overturn a Michigan Constitutional provision.”

Karamo's lawsuit would have required voters to vote in person, or obtain their absentee ballot in person. It was thrown out by Kenny the day before the election in November, noting that Karamo did not “produce any shred of evidence" in support of a policy that would have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters.

“Plaintiffs’ failure to produce any evidence that the procedures for this November 8th election violate state or federal election law demonizes the Detroit City Clerk, her office staff, and the 1,200 volunteers working this election,” Kenny said at the time. “These claims are unjustified, devoid of any evidentiary basis and cannot be allowed to stand.”

Detroit City Clerk's Janice Winfrey has since requested sanctions against the Republicans who brought the lawsuit, which reportedly sparked Kenny to come out of retirement so that he could preside over the proceedings.