Biglaw

Former Biglaw Partner Is Back On Her Election Denying Bullsh*t

You don't need evidence when you're just trying to sow distrust in the process.

By Kathryn Rubino on October 17, 2024 4:33 pm
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Cleta Mitchell (Gerard Albert III/Myrtle Beach Sun News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

MAGA lawyer Cleta Mitchell is back at it — trying to sow seeds of doubt about the 2024 election, even before the results are in. Sure, her dubious legal advice surrounding the 2020 election got her shitcanned from Biglaw firm Foley & Lardner’s partnership (and the fact that the firm claimed to have no knowledge of the representation). But her entire gig now basically revolves around disenfranchising voters — as reported by Shawn Musgrave at the Intercept.

Today, Mitchell is a senior fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute and founder of the Election Integrity Network. In recent weeks, she has helped plant lawsuits that seek last-minute changes to election procedures based on the hypothetical risk of election fraud from overseas voters. Mitchell did not respond to The Intercept’s questions, including about the status of a disciplinary complaint filed against her in 2022.

Of course, those lawsuits are in swing states.

The current con cases involve casting doubt on the votes of U.S. citizens abroad. Mitchell has described her “theory” in public statements.

“They’re literally getting people to lie,” Mitchell said, “and to say that they’re overseas or to say that they’re citizens, and the states are not checking at all. And so I’ve helped to organize suits in two states: one in Pennsylvania, one in North Carolina.”

Mitchell’s comments follow recent claims from Trump that Democrats’ get-out-the-vote efforts among overseas citizens was actually cover for fraud. Two lawsuits match the timing of Mitchell’s interview and her description: one filed in federal court in Pennsylvania on behalf of six Republican members of Congress, and the other in state court in North Carolina on behalf of the Republican National Committee and the state GOP.

The RNC filed a similar third suit last week in Michigan, after Mitchell’s interview. And Mitchell said she hoped to see similar litigation over overseas ballots filed soon in Wisconsin and Georgia.

The RNC has denied Mitchell worked on their lawsuits.

Officials have strongly denied there’s any fraud, except that which lives in MAGA attorneys’ heads.

“This is not a legitimate legal concern,” Angela Benander, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State, told The Intercept. “Just the latest in the RNC’s PR campaign to spread unfounded distrust in the integrity of our elections.” On Monday, the agency asked for sanctions against the RNC’s attorneys for filing a last-minute lawsuit “devoid of legal merit” over long-standing overseas ballot procedures.

But even without evidence of voter fraud, the litigation itself fuels the problem.

“One of the lessons from 2020 was that the impact of bringing all these lawsuits in terms of public trust in the election was significant,” said legal ethics professor Scott Cummings, who has written about the MAGA legal braintrust’s efforts to keep Trump in power. “Most of the lawsuits then were not designed to win on the merits, but to confuse the public. These cases are of a same piece.”

“It seems like there’s a political calculation,” Cummings said. “These lawyers unfortunately believe it’s worth it.”

Makes you wonder about the status of that disciplinary complaint against Mitchell.

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].