Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger West of the Central District of California told Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones magazine that defending the government from a lawsuit brought by California lawyer/dentist Orly Taitz, a leader in the “birther” movement that believes President Barack Obama was born in another county, has not taken much of his time.

According to Mother Jones:

The case has dragged on for more than a year, mostly because Taitz, a graduate of an online, unaccredited law school, failed to serve the defendants. Judge David O. Carter dismissed the suit in October for a host of reasons, but Taitz has appealed. Yet West says that far from bleeding his office, Taitz and her co-counsel Gary Kreep have assembled such a weak case that he hasn’t had to spend much time on it. “I filed one motion that didn’t take too long, we’ve had two hearings and that’s it,” he says. “It’s not like we’ve devoted some sort of task force to this.”

And, according to Mother Jones, Army Major Rebecca Ausprung, who handled two of the birther cases against the Department of the Army that disputed Obama’s authority as commander in chief, says she spent a few hours drafting motions and doing research. “The monetary cost to the government in defending these two cases was extremely minimal,” she says.

And finally, in another case, dismissed by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Election Commission was invited to submit a bill for its expenses in dealing with the case. The bill was $20.40.

Dentist-attorney Orly Taitz, one of the leaders of the “birther” movement that insists President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore cannot be president of the United States, has written two Assistant U.S. Attorneys to request that a dismissed civil case in California be transferred to court in D.C.

According to Taitz’s Web site, she e-mailed two Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Roger West and David DeJute, on Wednesday to schedule “a short phone meet and confer conference” request that her case be transferred to D.C.

Taitz filed the motion on Thursday, which is scheduled to be heard on Jan. 25 in court in the Central District of California.

Back in September, the two Justice Department lawyers, representing Obama, argued that the case should be dismissed because it was inherently flawed. The case was thrown out, and now Taitz is arguing that the merits of the case weren’t heard because the suit was thrown out simply because it did not take place in the right venue.

In a separate Georgia case Taitz filed, the judge ordered the U.S. Attorney to attempt to collect $20,000 from Taitz because she filed frivolous lawsuits. That order came after U.S. District Judge Clay Land belittled Taitz in a widely circulated order that accused Taitz of not understanding legal principles grasped by “any middle school civics student.” He added: “Unlike in Alice in Wonderland, simply saying something is so does not make it so.”

Acting U.S. Attorney G.F. Peterman for the Middle District of Georgia told TPMmuckraker last week that his office is waiting on Taitz’s appeal before it attempts to collect the fine. TPM has a rundown of Taitz’s suits and media appearances in 2009 in this post.

Via Taitz’s Web site, here is her e-mail to West and DeJutte. The motion filed in California on Thursday is embedded below.

This was e-mailed to assistant US attorneys Roger West and David DeJutte : Dr. Orly Taitz Esquire.

Gentlemen

I would like to schedule a short phone meet and confer conference for today at 4pm regarding filing a motion to transfer of this case to DC.

thank you,

Dr. Orly Taitz ESQ

KEYES|BARNETT v OBAMA – 105 – NOTICE OF MOTION AND First MOTION to Transfer Case to District of Columbia – …