The day after the 2020 presidential election, I predicted the left was going to target any attorney who dared to get involved challenging election fraud. They’d already started successfully targeting conservative attorneys, it just hadn’t gotten much attention yet. Since most people are bored by legal issues, they fly under the radar. I wrote about it over a year ago, and things have gotten far worse since then. This year, they launched “The 65 Project” to brazenly accomplish it, named after the 65 lawsuits Trump-affiliated attorneys filed after the election.
The left has developed a powerfully coordinated legal election effort under the leadership of left-wing lawyer Marc Elias. In recent years, he has successfully brought together a coalition of left-wing nonprofit groups to work in conjunction with each other on elections. It’s a brilliant plan considering the left now dominates much of the legal system to give him victories; in urban areas they have more judgeships, they dominate state bars which are responsible for attorney discipline, and they run the biggest, most powerful law firms.
The reason they have taken over state bars is because while conservative attorneys are more likely to have families and be involved in church, taking up much of their free time, liberal lawyers are not, so they have more time to volunteer and serve on state bars’ boards of governors and committees. The left also controls large law firms for similar reasons. Without family and church obligations, they can devote long hours to achieving required billable hours.
Now they’re coming after elected attorneys too. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who has been out on the forefront investigating election fraud, had 12 bar complaints filed against him and his staff by radical activist Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs over election issues. He beat them, but she will just figure out reasons to file more; continue to throw mud until something sticks. The Arizona State Bar is one of the most vicious bars in the country. I work as a reporter, and can rarely get comments for my articles from conservative attorneys in the state due to their fear of retaliation.
The State Bar of Texas is going after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, suing him for investigating election fraud in the 2020 election. Paxton asked the U.S. Supreme Court to enjoin Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin for breaking election laws by implementing voting changes during the COVID-19 pandemic without the approval of state legislators. SCOTUS rejected his request 7-2 for lack of standing, a sign that it wasn’t completely without merit. So now the bar is alleging he violated a catch-all, vague rule of professional misconduct prohibiting “dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”
But if he really had committed fraud, shouldn’t he be given a jury trial by fellow Americans? It’s easy to get left-wing run state bars to disbar conservative attorneys, because it’s not a jury of Americans that decides; it’s either a left-leaning bar judge or panel stacked with left-wing attorneys, plus occasionally a token member or two from the public.
Jonathan Mosely, who represented Jan. 6 protesters, was disbarred by the Virginia State Bar. He represented Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs and Proud Boys leader Zachary Rehl, worked for Judicial Watch, and served in the Reagan administration, so he was a juicy target. The reasoning was more of the usual, vague, catch-all words; failing in “meritorious claims and contentions, candor toward the tribunal, fairness to opposing party and counsel and misconduct.” Politico bragged, “Moseley’s exit could complicate Meggs’ ability to prepare a defense.”
The charges against the Jan. 6 protesters have been mostly filed in courts assigned to Democratic appointed judges. When they haven’t, the defendants have done surprisingly well. D.C. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, acquitted defendant Matthew Martin of all four misdemeanor charges filed against him. Martin, who was caught on video entering the U.S. Capitol building as police officers waved him on, had been charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
The 65 Project includes David Brock, who has made a career out of targeting conservatives. This year, the group filed bar complaints against Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump attorney Jenna Ellis and Trump attorney Joe DiGenova. They’ve filed several other complaints against lesser known attorneys as well.
The California State Bar was already investigating Trump attorney John Eastman, who was one of the most reputable conservative attorneys in the country, destroying his career. He was forced out of his position as a professor at Chapman University’s law school, and suffered other retaliation. Trump attorney Sidney Powell similarly had a prestigious reputation in her area of criminal law, but is now buried in civil lawsuits and the State Bar of Texas is recommending sanctions against her.
Over half the states have mandatory state bars, so once disbarred, an attorney can no longer practice law. And even if they move to another state, other states almost always reciprocally recognize the disbarment.
Sadly, the right is not united in protecting its attorneys. Once in the left’s crosshairs, they are deserted, there is no one writing to expose their side of the witch hunts, no one fundraising to help them. The right raised more than half a million dollars to help Kyle Rittenhouse — which they should have — but ignores conservative lawyers under fire, even fellow conservative lawyers who should know better.
Part of this is because the left cleverly targets underlings who have no fame, connections or money. Tellingly, the Texas State Bar went after Paxton’s First Assistant Brent Webster first. Once they take him down, it becomes much easier to get Paxton, since Paxton looks “complicit.” This problem is just going to get worse until the right stops ignoring and deserting these attorneys. You can scream election fraud all you want, but if it gets bottlenecked in the legal system, the left wins.