Tim Eyman says AG Ferguson wants more money that he doesn’t have

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is demanding $2.8 million in legal fees and costs related to his lawsuit against initiative promoter Tim Eyman, and that’s on top of the $2.6 million fine a judge already imposed on Eyman.

Tim Eyman vows to continue initiative campaigns despite new legal hurdles

Eyman told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show on Monday that it’s all money he doesn’t have.

“He’s basically saying, ‘if Eyman had just not defended himself for the last eight and a half years, it wouldn’t have been so expensive.’ And that’s absolutely true,” Eyman said.

Eyman says his lawyer advised him to offer a vigorous defense, but it completely wiped him out.

“Why not make it $28 million? It doesn’t matter,” he said. “You’ve already taken everything I’ve ever had.”

“It was a siege. We were getting hit with so many motions, so many requests for information. No matter how much we gave him, it was never enough,” Eyman added.

In 2020, a federal bankruptcy judge ordered Eyman to adhere to a payment plan for contempt sanctions of over $341,000. A previous ruling in Thurston County court has determined that Eyman “willfully and deliberately” failed to comply with court orders to produce documents, beginning in 2018, and spanning nearly 800 days.

A Thurston County Superior Court Judge also already granted the Office of the Attorney General legal fees in the case when the judge ruled against Eyman last month for “numerous and egregious” violations of campaign finance laws, barring Eyman from managing any and all finances for political committees.

In 2018, Eyman filed for bankruptcy in hopes of protecting his assets from court proceedings.

On Twitter, Ferguson claims that Eyman’s antics and delay tactics have cost taxpayers millions.

Eyman's obstructionist antics and delay tactics, in addition to this repeat and intentional illegal conduct, cost taxpayers millions. I plan to collect. https://t.co/vmUFWITrnu

— Bob Ferguson (@BobFergusonAG) March 12, 2021

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Ferguson filed an itemized bill that claimed seven lawyers and staff from his office spent almost 10,000 hours on the case. The case began in 2012 with an investigation of Eyman by the Public Disclosure Commission.

The KIRO Radio Newsdesk contributed to this report. Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.