According to filings made public on Friday, Lawrence Joseph, Brandon Johnson, and Juli Haller were charged with lying to the court. The three lawyers were involved in Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The crime
The three lawyers have been charged by investigators for the Washington DC bar with “making knowingly false representations to courts” about various lawsuits they filed challenging the 2020 election, according to POLITICO.
The punishment
If they are found guilty, the lawyers could be reprimanded, suspended, or even disbarred. A committee made up of members of the Washington DC bar will determine what punishment each of the accused will receive.
Criminal plan
Lawrence Joseph was personally involved in a lawsuit brought against Mike Pence. The suit attempted to pressure the then-vice president into using his authority to choose Trump as president.
Knowingly lying
Joseph also filed a complaint in Texas, the Friday filing stated, in which he claimed that a different group of electors in Arizona and other supposedly “contested states” had voted for Trump, not Biden. “Respondent knew that the claims about a “competing slate” of electors in Arizona (as well as the slates in other “Contested States”) had no factual basis and was false,” the filing alleged.
Tricky business
In December 2020, then–Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, announced that Trump had asked the state legislature to “overturn the certified results of last month’s election and deliver the state’s electoral college votes to President Trump.” Bowers refused, explaining that the “rule of law forbids us to do that.” Soon after, Joseph filed claims with “no basis in fact” about these events and “never corrected his claims,” according to the filing.
Unleash the Kraken
Juli Haller was involved in Sidney Powell’s “Kraken” lawsuits. This was the name Powell gave to her various challenges to Biden’s victories in swing states, which all ultimately failed.
Widespread involvement
Brandon Johnson also participated in many of Powell’s lawsuits. In October 2023, Powell pleaded guilty to six counts of “conspiracy to commit intentional interference with performance of election duties,” per CBS News, relating to her attempts to access Georgia election data.
Continued battling
Haller has since represented defendants charged with participating in the Jan 6 insurrection. In the three years since the attack on the Capitol, over 1,265 individuals have been charged, and about 718 have pleaded guilty to federal charges in relation to the riot.
Dark money
One of the individuals Haller represented was Kelly Meggs, a member of the Oath Keepers. The organization is described as an “extremist group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which describes how members believe in “a set of baseless conspiracy theories” and have “participated in multiple armed standoffs against the government.”
Retaliatory action
The charges against Haller, Johnson, and Joseph are the latest in a series of disciplinary actions against lawyers involved in Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election. According to POLITICO, Rudy Giuliani, for example, was suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington DC as a result of his attempt to interfere with the election results in Pennsylvania.
Widespread crime
Jenna Ellis, Trump’s campaign lawyer, admitted to lying about election fraud in Colorado. John Eastman, who attempted to prevent Biden from winning the Electoral College, was found to have violated legal ethics standards in California.
No excuses
The three lawyers “had no plausible factual basis for the claims they made,” the Washington DC investigators stated, “and the relief they sought was unprecedented and beyond the authority of courts to grant.”
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