The 65 Project
![“The 65 Project” [Dark background, squared serious font, gavel silhouette cutout of bottom curve of “5” in “65”]](/wiki/File:65_Project_dark_wide_2024.webp) | |
| Founder | David Brock, Melissa Moss |
|---|---|
| Origins | Media and legal activist network with Facts First USA |
| Methods | Disciplinary Bar Complaints, Negative Publicity |
Key people | Michael Teter |
Parent organization | Law Works |
| Website | The65project.com |
The 65 Project is a legal activism campaign[1] seeking to “disbar and discredit”[2] Trump-affiliated[3] lawyers who worked on post-election lawsuits.[4] The earliest reporting on the 65 Project repeatedly described it as a “dark money group.”[2][4][5][6]
The group is advised by David Brock, the founder of opposition research groups Media Matters for America and American Bridge 21st Century, who described the idea of the 65 Project as bringing attorney bar complaints, and to “shame them and make them toxic in their communities and in their firms."[5][2] In the same 2022 interview with Axios, Brock emphasized “threatening the livelihoods” and reputations [4] of the attorneys.
The 65 Project's Managing Director is Michael Teter,[7] an attorney suing Fox News as counsel for Ray Epps.[8] The project was also devised by Democratic political consultant Melissa Moss, a former senior Clinton administration official, and operates through a not-for-profit named “Law Works.”[4]
Methods
[edit]In line with the group's mission, the 65 project files ethics complaints with bar associations, some of which have been dismissed for lack of evidence.[4] These complaints have included high-profile figures, such as Ted Cruz, John Eastman and Cleta Mitchell.[4] The 65 Project has also stated its interest in changing lawyers's professional rules, including placing limits on lawyers’s public statements about elections.[7][9]
The group stated in early 2022 it planned to take action against 111 attorneys.[10] As of July 2023, all but one of the 65 Project’s concluded complaints had been dismissed or found no punishable offense.[11] In 2022, attorneys pursued by the group said they had received additional attempts after previous complaints were unsuccessful.[12]
Reactions
[edit]Concerns over the methods of The 65 project have been raised since at least March 2022.[13] Bruce Green, the director of Fordham Law School’s Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, emphasized that the 65 Project’s complaints were “designed to embarrass” lawyers, discouraging political work “even if they’re playing by the rules.”[13] CNN noted that the investigations sought by the 65 Project “unfold in secret” until claims are found meritorious in most states, but that, as Green raised concerns about, the 65 Projects “heavily publicized allegations” would harm lawyers reputations before claims were reviewed.[13] Complaints filed by The 65 Project have been dismissed since the groups first public announcements, beginning with Georgia attorney Brad Carver,[4] but has continued publish adversarial media targeting lawyers’s professional communities, planning to run advertisements in law journals in late fall 2024.[14]
Alan Dershowitz, whose sanctions for “frivolous” election litigation[15] followed complaints by Marc Elias’s firm[16], compared the results of its work as similar to the “ridicule” faced by suspected communists during McCarthyism[17] and Texas Congressman Lance Gooden described the 65 Project as “a far-left activist group of lawyers actively engaging in partisan tactics.”[18] The 65 Project describes itself as “bipartisan,” and “defending democracy and the rule of law.”[19] The 65 Project elicited criticism from ethics complaint respondent Cleta Mitchell for not also pursuing attorney Marc Elias[2] who had challenged the Iowa election results of Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks previously.[20]
The 65 Project controversially described attorney Kenneth Cheseboro, who the Guardian described as having a “liberal past”[21] and who lawyer and commentator Jeffrey Toobin described as the “least likely”[21] to commit misconduct, as the “central mind” and “legal power” behind election challenges[22] and also filed complaints over his alleged conduct.[1] The Wall Street Journal editorial board described the series of misconduct investigations, which came after complaints filed by The 65 Project,[23] including into Cheseboro as “Lawfare at its most dishonest.”[24]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Thomas, David (October 12, 2022). "Lawyer group says Trump attorney broke ethics rules in fake elector plan". Reuters. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
- ^ a b c d Rogers, Zachary (2022-03-07). "Democrat-tied dark-money group seeks to disbar over 100 Trump-linked lawyers, says report". ABC KATV. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
- ^ Thomas, David (July 20, 2022). "Group lodges more ethics complaints against Trump-affiliated lawyers". Reuters. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g Markay, Lachlan; Swan, Jonathan (March 7, 2022). "Scoop: High-powered group targets Trump lawyers' livelihoods". Axios (website). Retrieved September 19, 2024.
- ^ a b Durkee, Alison. "Campaign Targets 111 Trump-Linked Election Lawyers. Here's Some Already Facing A Backlash". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
- ^ Beals, Monique (2022-03-07). "Group trying to disbar lawyers who worked on Trump's post-election lawsuits". The Hill. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
- ^ a b Thomas, David (October 12, 2022). "Lawyer group says Trump attorney broke ethics rules in fake elector plan". Reuters.
- ^ "Former Trump supporter sues Fox News over Jan. 6 conspiracy theory". PBS News. 2023-07-14. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
- ^ Skolnick, Sam (October 12, 2022). "Trump Lawyer Targeting Push Opens New Front With Bar Rules". Bloomberg Law.
- ^ Cassens-Weiss, Debra (March 9, 2022). "Sidney Powell faces ethics charges over election litigation; group seeks discipline against other lawyers". Journal of the American Bar Association. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
- ^ Khardori, Ankush (July 26, 2023). "Trump's 'Elite Strike Force Team' Falls on Hard Times". Politico. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
- ^ Sneed, Tierney (2022-03-10). "Inside the effort to disbar attorneys who backed bogus election lawsuits | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
- ^ a b c Sneed, Tierney (March 10, 2022). "Inside the effort to disbar attorneys who backed bogus election lawsuits". CNN. Retrieved September 20, 2024.
- ^ Feuer, Alan (September 19, 2024). "Legal Watchdog Group Warns Pro-Trump Lawyers Against Subverting Democracy in November". New York Times.
- ^ Robertson, Nick (2023-07-15). "Kari Lake's team ordered to pay more than $122K in sanctions over Maricopa lawsuit". The Hill. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
- ^ "'Enough Really Is Enough': Arizona Governor-Elect Katie Hobbs Seeks More Than $500,000 in Sanctions for Kari Lake and Her Lawyers". Law & Crime. 2022-12-26. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
- ^ Klayman, Larry (April 14, 2023). "Petition For A Writ Of Mandamus To The District Of Columbia Court Of Appeals In The Matter Of Larry E. Klayman" (PDF). Supreme Court Docket: 2.
- ^ "RELEASE: Congressman Lance Gooden Calls for Immediate Action Against the Partisan Legal Tactics of the 65 Project". Congressman Lance Gooden. 2024-01-24. Retrieved 2024-09-19.
- ^ "65 Project website". 65 Project. September 19, 2024.
- ^ Grayer, Annie (2021-03-22). "House Democrats face backlash on both sides for investigating Iowa House race won by a Republican | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2024-09-21.
- ^ a b Pilkington, Ed (2023-08-19). "'It baffles me': what drew a mild lawyer with a liberal past into Trump's election plot?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
- ^ Pilkington, Ed (2023-08-19). "'It baffles me': what drew a mild lawyer with a liberal past into Trump's election plot?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
- ^ "Group files complaint against attorneys involved in lawsuits seeking to overturn 2020 election – WisPolitics". WisPolitics. August 31, 2022. Retrieved 2024-09-20.
- ^ WSJ, Editorial Board (September 16, 2024). "Lawfare at its Most Dishonest". The Wall Street Journal.