Let the reckoning for the crimes of two-time popular vote sore loser impeached Donald Trump begin, and let's start with his lawyers. And that's what the lawyers say! As of Dec. 6, around 1,500 attorneys have signed an open letter (they're still taking signatures) calling for bar associations across the country to investigate and, as appropriate, penalize members of Trump's "elite strike force" legal team, including Rudy Giuliani and all the lawyers on the fringes of his claims. "More than 35 losses in election-related cases have made one thing painfully clear: President Trump’s barrage of litigation is a pretext for a campaign to undermine public confidence in the outcome of the 2020 election, which inevitably will subvert constitutional democracy," the Lawyers Defending American Democracy write. "Sadly, the President’s primary agents and enablers in this effort are lawyers, obligated by their oath and ethical rules to uphold the rule of law."
"It is indefensible for lawyers to falsely proclaim widespread voting fraud, submit a pattern of frivolous court claims and actively seek to undermine citizens’ faith in our election’s integrity," the group writes. "We condemn this conduct without reservation." Among the signers: "Philip Lacovera, a former deputy solictor general who worked on the case that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon; Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University; and Thomas Vanaskie, a former judge with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia."
As, well, mastermind of the scheme, Giuliani draws the bulk of the lawyers' condemnation: "Mr. Giuliani’s aim is obvious: to fuel Mr. Trump’s campaign to delegitimize the outcome of the election," they write. "Attorneys take an oath to support the Constitution. Lawyers who lie to advance the partisan interest of a politician or any client dishonor the constitutional system they've sworn to uphold, the legal profession and themselves." They also call out Joseph DiGenova for dishonor, citing his "outrageous November 30 statement on Newsmax that former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Christopher Krebs, should be 'taken out at dawn and shot.'"
"We condemn this conduct without reservation," they conclude. "It demeans the legal profession and the multitudes of lawyers of all political persuasions who daily serve their clients and the public honorably. Our profession needs to affirm that this behavior grossly deviates from the bar's deep commitment to democratic institutions and the fact-based processes that maintain our democracy’s vitality." The dozens of law professors and former judges are joined by at least two U.S. attorneys, several former U.S. Department of Justice attorneys, as well as dozens of former state attorneys general and deputy attorneys general. And hundreds of practicing and retired lawyers who took—and take—their oath to uphold the rule of law seriously. Anyone who has been admitted to the bar is asked to sign.
This is a good start on seizing the rule of law back from Trump, and the bar associations need to heed it and act.