Group launches ad blitz threatening lawyers' licenses if they work for Trump

While lawfare frequently has targeted GOP politicians, the tactic is spreading to the legal profession as a group called "The 65 Project" has taken to social media vowing to go after the licenses of attorneys who chose to work for former President Donald Trump.

The 65 Project, which  launched earlier this year as a "bipartisan" watchdog with both prominent Democrats and Republicans, announced it had launched digital and print advertisements in swing states such as Wisconsin and Michigan with the stark warning, "Don't lose your law license because of Trump."

The managing director of the project said that 86 bar complaints have already been filed against attorneys who have filed election lawsuits on behalf of Trump following the 2020 election. 

“Across the country, lawyers who lent their credibility as officers of the court to Donald Trump to file factually and legally baseless claims to overturn legitimate election results have been investigated by state bar associations, been fined, had their licenses suspended, and even disbarred,” managing director Michael Teter said.

Following the 2020 election, Trump claimed that the election was stolen and there were multiple lawsuits filed in different states such as Georgia and Pennsylvania. 

While many of the lawsuits were unsuccessful, the lawfare against attorneys working for Trump or working on other election integrity cases was successful.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who represented Trump in a Georgia election lawsuit, was disbarred in Washington, D.C. last month. This occurred just months after he lost his law license in New York. The panel that decided his license should be suspended wrote that Giuliani “claimed massive election fraud but had no evidence."

The 65 Project has a list of lawyers that it has filed ethics complaints against, including former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis who worked on an Arizona election subversion case, Kurt Olsen who represented Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake in her 2022 election fraud case and Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz.

Dershowitz told Just the News in a statement that what the group is doing is "pure McCarthyism."

"They already filed a complaint against me," he said. "It’s pure McCarthyism. And unethical. And it’s scaring some lawyers away."

"The 65 Project is a bipartisan effort to protect democracy and preserve the rule of law by deterring future attacks on our electoral system," The 65 Project said in a statement. "We are holding accountable Big Lie Lawyers who bring fraudulent and malicious lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results, and working with bar associations to revitalize the disciplinary process so that lawyers, including public officials, who subvert democracy will be punished."

Trump has argued that he has face lawfare at the federal level with lawsuits not related to election integrity, but involving his personal life and business. 

Dershowitz said earlier this year on an episode of the Just the News, No Noise TV show that lawyers have been advised not to work for Trump or they would face consequences. 

"I know lawyers who have been asked to defend Donald Trump on First Amendment grounds," Dershowitz said. "They would normally take the case, but they say, 'we can't afford it for our family because they're coming after our bar license.'"

Dershowitz said that he was seeing the return of "McCarthyism" and it is being pushed by the younger generation.

Last month, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree for his reimbursement of a $130,000 payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump had argued that this lawsuit and lawsuits on other states were part of a political witch hunt, which other GOP politicians and even some on the left  have echoed.