The cost of Fulton County's losing legal battle over Dominion keeps climbing. The latest.

After a three-day proceeding punctuated by opiate use, a pregnancy emergency and a smattering of antisemitic dog whistles, Fulton County lost another one.

Court transcripts show that local officials and their lawyers — including one attorney recently indicted on federal charges in Michigan — wanted to hire a Florida-based company to guard voting machines that commissioners had illegally inspected for fraud after the 2020 election. A supervising judge instead opted for a different outfit selected by the Pennsylvania Department of State, and may stick the county taxpayers with the state's legal fees to boot.

The state's collective bill for the county's 14,533 residents is already nearly half a million dollars and counting.

Want more?: A Pa. county defied the courts to hunt for 2020 voter fraud. Here's what happened next.

Invoices and applications to Commonwealth Court show that the Pennsylvania Department of State is requesting reimbursement from the county for at least $448,039.53 in counsel fees and other litigation costs from April 12, 2022, through June 9 of this year. Local taxpayers may be on the hook for those charges because their county commissioners were found in contempt earlier this year for allowing third parties to inspect Dominion voting machines used in the 2020 election in spite of a court order that forbade them from doing so.

A bulk of the fee reimbursements sought by the state are for Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller and the Tucker Law Group, both legal firms based in Philadelphia.

Another bill is expected after a ruling that stemmed from hearings held Aug. 28, 30 and 31 before Commonwealth Court President Judge Renée Cohn Jubelirer. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania had appointed Jubelirer as special master of the case last year.

County Commissioners Stuart Ulsh, Randy Bunch and Paula Shives did not respond to subsequent requests for comment on the ruling.

Ulsh and Bunch, the Republicans on the board, have defended their decision to give a company called Speckin Forensics unauthorized access to the voting machines as an honest effort to find the unsubstantiated widespread voter fraud alleged by former President Donald Trump. Shives has maintained that she wasn't consulted and didn't know about the inspections until after the fact.

Speckin created a report last year that accused Dominion's machines of containing shoddy security features and an external IP connection to Canada. A computer data specialist with the company claimed the system had a Python script that can "exploit and create any number of vulnerabilities including ... external access to the system, data export of the tabulations, or introduction of other metrics not part of or allowed by the certification process."

A call to Erich Speckin — an analyst with the company who was involved in the broadly dismissed Arizona election audit — was not returned by press deadline.

What caused eight requests for delay in court proceedings?

The court's latest ruling against the county was proof of more "bad faith" and "dilatory conduct" from the commissioners and their attorneys, according to Ellen Lyons, deputy director of communications for the Pennsylvania Department of State.

In one of the first of the county's eight requests for a delay to the August impoundment proceedings, county attorney Thomas Carroll told the judge he was feeling unwell from the pills he'd swallowed.

"I'm not used to taking that kind of medication. And it is affecting my ability to focus and to hear and listen because of the nature of that opioid that they prescribed," Carroll said while connected remotely to the courtroom hearing.

Carroll was using the drug to help dull the pain from a recent accident, according to legal colleague Russell Newman.

"You don't schedule yourself to fall down the stairs and break your ribs," Newman told the court.

Jubelirer denied the delay request, admonishing Carroll in her eventual ruling. Another incident arose on the third and final day of the hearing.

"My wife is reporting that she is in labor," Newman said, "and I would respectfully request permission to be able to go home to be there for the birth of my child, and so we move the Court for an adjournment or a stay."

Jubelirer denied this delay request as well.

Attorneys for the commonwealth spent some time outlining the county's association with Stefanie Lambert, a lawyer for the county who is facing charges including "undue possession" of a voting machine in Michigan.

County commissioners admitted they were still being advised by Lambert after questioning from Department of State attorney Robert Wiygul, who said he wanted to know "who is pulling the strings" behind the scenes.

Antisemitic social media posts from Fulton County's escrow agent choice

Joseph Sabia, co-owner of the Florida-based security company Cerberus Dynamic Solutions, confirmed that he was contacted by Lambert for the prospective job of becoming the escrow agent for the voting machines. He said one of the clients he provided security for had recommended him to Lambert.

Sabia touted his experience in transporting and securing military secrets from his decades in the U.S. Navy, and indicated that the voting machines could be kept at the county-owned site where they're already held by adding cameras and other security features.

Attorneys for the state and for Dominion argued that social media posts shared by Sabia prove he can't be trusted with the job. Sabia had shared social media posts calling the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots a "staged" event to "cover up the fact they certified a fraudulent election."

Other shared posts included ones stating that President Joe Biden was put in power to grow a "global human trafficking operation," an apparent joke that "Biden's cabinet's so Jewish, they want to ban gas stoves" and a video including the words "In their own media Jews admit to being the driving force behind every form of cultural subversion in America."

Ryan Macias, a voting systems expert who's conducted audits of the state's proposed escrow agent, testified on behalf of the commonwealth. He told the courtroom that Sabia isn't qualified for the job.

"I would like to equate it to that you wouldn't just hand over our nuclear facilities to somebody who was not trusted to handle that type of sensitivity data," Macias said.

"And similarly, you would not hand over some of the energy grid to someone who's not handling data that ... pertains to the energy grid. And so, again, having that trusted entity who is continuously audited by many different organizations, international and national, and has to meet specific standards ... is critical."

Fulton County lawyers allege conflict of interest

Attorneys for the county objected to the state's recommendation to select Alabama-based Pro V&V as the escrow agent, arguing the company shouldn't be trusted because it has the expertise to alter or erase data on the voting machines.

They also said there's a conflict of interest between Pro V&V and Dominion. Pro V&V is a voting system test lab that's had contracts with Dominion over the years to submit recommendations to the Election Assistance Commission for Dominion machines to be certified.

Jubelirer addressed this concern in her decision to appoint Pro V&V as custodian for the voting machines, ordering an agreement to take effect by Sept. 29.

"(Because) of the risk of such a conflict, the relationship between Dominion and Pro V&V is subject to a robust regulatory framework requiring Pro V&V to prevent and disclose conflicts of interest," the judge wrote. "As they credibly testified, Pro V&V is regulated and periodically audited for conflicts of interest, both institutionally and for its personnel, as part of its EAC accreditation. This includes scrutiny for financial conflicts of interest."

She also noted that the Pro V&V appears to be the less expensive option.

Pro V&V's offer was to charge $6,640 for the impoundment, inventory, pick-up and transportation of the equipment, $250 for packing and shipping and $850 per month in rent. This $17,090 for the first year was a fraction of the cost estimated provided by Cerberus.

Lambert did not respond to an email requesting comment for this story.

Sabia replied, but declined to go on record. He cited a company policy against commenting on a client's business.

Will taxpayers be picking up Fulton County's tab?

It's unclear whether insurance will cover the county's expenses related to the voting machines.

Commissioners unanimously adopted their 2023 budget in December without a tax increase. Their $7.4 million in expenses include insurance liability costs that increased from $68,955 last year to $83,063 for this year.

During the proceedings last month, an attorney for the state implied that county commissioners could be working with interested parties beyond their legal team. Wiygul questioned whether they'd received promise of outside financial backing related to their unauthorized inspection of the voting machines.

Asked directly whether any third party had offered to pay the county's fees, Ulsh responded: "Nobody has offered me anything."

Bruce Siwy is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network's Pennsylvania state capital bureau. He can be reached at bsiwy@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @BruceSiwy.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Fulton County PA in a legal dispute with state, Dominion over 2020