Trump’s post-election 'elite strike force' has been facing a 'legal reckoning': ex-federal prosecutor

26 July 2023

In late 2020 and early 2021, Donald Trump had an entire team of attorneys who enthusiastically promoted his false and repeatedly debunked claim that the presidential election was stolen from him. Among them were Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

The lawyers were not successful. On January 20, 2021, Joe Biden — the legitimate winner of the election — was sworn in as president. But the Big Lie and the January 6, 2021 insurrection raised troubling questions about the fragility of U.S. democracy.

In an article published by Politico on July 26, attorney and former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori examines the repercussions that some of Trump's 2020 lawyers have been facing.

Giuliani, Ellis and Powell, according to Khardori, described themselves as Trump's "elite strike force team" after the 2020 election but are now experiencing "modest signs of a reckoning within the legal profession."

"Giuliani had his law license suspended in New York, and early this month, a disciplinary committee in Washington, D.C., recommended that he be disbarred for 'frivolous' and 'destructive' conduct," the attorney observes. "A federal appeals court recently upheld court sanctions against Powell for making 'entirely baseless' claims and 'frivolous allegations of widespread voter fraud.' And in March, Ellis was censured by a judge in Colorado for making false claims 'on Twitter and to nationally televised audiences' that 'undermined the American public's confidence in the presidential election.'"

Khardori adds that another pro-Trump lawyer, Georgia resident Lin Woods, "formally retired from" his practice in Georgia "in an apparent bid to avoid being disbarred." And former law professor John C. Eastman, who wrote an outline for overturning the election results, is facing possible disbarment in California.

"This is to say nothing of the fact that most — if not all — of these lawyers appear to be under scrutiny by federal prosecutors at the Justice Department, as well as by local prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia," Khardori explains. "Against this backdrop stands the 65 Project, a legal advocacy group that was created to pursue accountability for the lawyers who sought to subvert American democracy in the 2020 election."

The 65 Project was co-founded by Media Matters' David Brock. According to Khardori, the group "secured" the "disciplinary action" against Ellis.

The former federal prosecutor notes, "The group was watching closely during the 2022 midterms, and it's now gearing up for plenty of fights in the courts ahead of another potentially chaotic national election as Trump, the current frontrunner for the 2024 GOP nomination, desperately fights for both his political and corporal lives."

Ankush Khardori's full article for Politico is available at this link.

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