As Harris and Trump battle it out, lawyers fight for ethics – Firstpost

After Donald Trump tried to overturn his 2020 election defeat, a rights group was formed to fight the lawyers who helped his doomed effort, filing more than 80 ethics complaints against them.

With Trump once again the Republican nominee for President of the United States, his allies have fired back at the group, dubbed Project 65. A pro-Trump nonprofit known as America First Legal has accused Project 65 of engaging in left-leaning efforts to intimidate conservative lawyers, filing a bar complaint against Project 65’s lead lawyer, Michael Teter, earlier this week. The Oct. 28 complaint said Teter targeted attorneys “solely based on their representation of a client in bad faith.”

Teter said America First Legal’s move shows “fear among those who want to use the courts to undermine democracy.” A representative for the body that hears allegations of attorney misconduct in Utah, where Teter is licensed, declined to comment on the complaint against Teter.

Allegations of misconduct at the duels underscore the critical role lawyers are once again playing as another election looms. Some lawyers involved in Trump’s failed 2020 bid to stay in office, which was based on false claims of widespread fraud, have lost their licenses or faced charges.

Trump said he can’t lose this time unless Democrats cheat. That raises the possibility that he will challenge the results if Vice President Kamala Harris is declared the winner after the Nov. 5 election.

Project 65, named after the number of unsuccessful lawsuits it says were filed to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory, says its mission is to prevent lawyers from making false claims about the election. In September, the group pledged to spend at least $100,000 advertising in legal journals in host countries, warning lawyers not to risk losing their law licenses by helping Trump.

America First Legal, a nonprofit founded in 2021 by former Trump White House aide Stephen Miller, sharply criticized the ad on its website announcing its complaint against Teter. The group is increasingly focused on this year’s election after previously filing lawsuits challenging diversity and migration policies.

“Seeking the personal destruction and financial ruin of another lawyer — simply because of a client he represented or a case he took — goes against … the letter and spirit of the law governing lawyers,” America First Legal Executive Director Gene Hamilton said in a statement. , announcing the complaint against Teter. A representative of the group did not respond to inquiries Reuters for further comments.

Among America First Legal’s election-related activities this year was filing a lawsuit in August to force precincts in embattled Arizona to investigate about 44,000 voters — about 1 percent of the state’s total voters — who were allowed to register without providing proof of citizenship. . A judge on Oct. 11 declined to rule in favor of America First Legal ahead of the election, which the group is challenging.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Firstpost staff.)

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