Iowa Paid $3,178,644, Defending Branstad, In Godfrey Case

(Des Moines, IA) — The State of Iowa spent nearly three-point-two million dollars in the nearly one decade of defense of former Governor Terry Branstad’s attempt to replace the state’s Workers Compensation Commissioner. The state’s Executive Council has approved the final payment of 371-thousand dollars to the Des Moines law firm that represented Branstad. Former Workers Compensation Commissioner Christopher Godfrey filed a lawsuit in 2012 accusing Branstad of singling him out because he was gay, pressuring him to resign, then cutting his salary by a third when he refused. In 2019, a jury awarded Godfrey one-and-a-half million dollars. Two years later, the Iowa Supreme Court tossed out the jury’s verdict, ruling that there was no evidence to prove Branstad is anti-gay.