RNC is rebuilding its legal operation after failed efforts by Trump allies to overturn the 2020 race

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last time Donald Trump ran for president, lawyers were most directly involved in his efforts…

WASHINGTON (AP) — During Donald Trump’s last run for president, lawyers were most directly involved in his efforts to overturn the election sanctioned, subject to criminal prosecution even Millions of dollars worth of lawsuits filed.

As Trump continues to deny that he lost the 2020 election and cast doubt on the integrity of the next election, this time Republican party leaders are trying to present a more organized and qualified legal operation.

“It was very important to make sure that we were running a fully professional operation in every respect,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley told the Associated Press.

Like Republicans and Democrats fight in court over election rulesIn the wake of the 2020 race, the Trump team finds itself under an especially intense microscope, given that unnecessary legal efforts to challenge the results have fizzled. rejected many times By judges appointed by the presidents of both political parties. Trying to undo the results, Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. in a violent confrontation with law enforcement.

The chaotic court challenges were pushed by a loosely organized group of lawyers who came into Trump’s orbit after veteran establishment lawyers during the campaign advised the then-president to back down on his allegations of widespread fraud. This year the Republican National Committee launched a coordinated “election integrity” initiative This includes hiring thousands of lawyers, poll workers and poll workers who officials insist will act lawfully.

“What we’ve seen in court over the last six months, and as we’ve grown to more than 130 cases, is a testament to the fact that we’re working with the states and the courts to make sure we have a truly accountable program up and running,” Whatley added.

However, there is no guarantee that a team with good references will achieve better results if the allegations are again based on unfounded allegations or if this effort is not chosen by different lawyers after the election, as was the case in 2020.

A new legal team is taking shape

Lawyers with featured roles include Steven Kenny, RNC senior counsel who practices at the powerful law firm of Jones Day; Gineen Bresso, who was nominated by then-President George W. Bush to serve on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and later became chairman; and Josh Helton, general counsel for Mike Huckabee’s 2016 presidential campaign.

David Warrington, Person representing Trump in congressional investigation on January 6He has also been involved in litigation, including one challenging the designation of voter registration agencies in Michigan.

The RNC’s lawsuit so far has aimed to enforce voter ID requirements; alleging that non-citizens voted improperly; and they are challenging what they see as lax rules on mail and absentee voting.

Democrats have raised alarm about the election integrity initiative, saying it is an effort to sow distrust in the process and pave the way for foul play if Trump loses. They warned that election deniers holding voting-related positions could refuse to certify legitimate results. And they assembled a team of seasoned attorneys, including longtime Democratic attorney Marc Elias, and filed their own lawsuit, including challenging Georgia rules they fear could be used by Trump’s allies to delay or prevent certification. Last week a judge invalidated seven of the rules.

The flurry of lawsuits is hardly surprising in a competitive election between Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris that could go against nearly a half-dozen battleground states.

Familiar figures of 2020 reappeared

Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer attending a hearing January 2021 phone call in which Trump begged Georgia officials to “find” enough votes to declare him the winnerHe defended cases that challenged rules about how overseas voters, including military members overseas, could vote. (On Monday, Judges in North Carolina and Michigan rejected efforts to invalidate the votes of certain overseas voters.)

The RNC appointed Christina Bobb to head its election integrity division earlier this year. Bobb, a former reporter for the conservative One America News Network. Charged by Arizona attorney generalHe was accused of participating in an effort to support the Trump slate of electors after the 2020 election, even though Democrat Joe Biden won the state. His attorney, Thomas Jacobs, said Bobb “had no involvement in the arrangements for the selection or presentation of these alternative electors” and would seek to dismiss the charges.

Trump has been criminally charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election, but his insistence that the contest was marred by fraud was embraced by many within the party despite judges, election officials and surrogates. Trump’s own attorney general found no evidence of this.

Trump says there is no evidence of cheating so far in 2024

In May, Charlie Spies, a veteran election law attorney with ties to Mitt Romney and Ron DeSantis, resigned as the RNC’s general counsel after nearly two months. He caused a stir at the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference by saying there was “zero evidence” that a glitch in voting machine software caused thousands of votes to be changed in the 2020 election.

what did he say radio interview There was “massive fraud” in the weeks after the 2020 election. But he largely avoided using Trump’s characterization of Biden’s victory and In an interview in 2021 he said That Biden was “absolutely” legitimately elected.

Meeting in North Carolina on Monday, Trump praised Whatley for being “more than committed to stopping the steal” in 2020. Although Trump has said he has seen no evidence of fraud in 2024, he has repeatedly expressed doubts about the process. Fans must show up for the result to be “too big to cheat”.

Among the established Republican political lawyers who withstood legal challenges in 2020 was Justin Riemer, an attorney for John McCain’s 2008 campaign who later became the RNC’s chief counsel but clashed with Trump allies after the election. In a November 2020 email, he warned an RNC colleague that legal efforts were “ridiculous out of court.”

“This is setting us back in our fight for election integrity, and they are misleading millions of people who have delusional thoughts that the president will somehow win this job,” Riemer wrote in his email about the two assisting attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis. Engineer Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.

Consequences for Trump-allied lawyers

Giuliani was disbarred in New York and Washington; Ellis lost his law license in Colorado. The duo, along with Sidney Powell, another lawyer who pushed Trump’s claims, were among 19 people charged in Georgia’s Fulton County with conspiring to overturn the election.

Both Powell and Ellis pleaded guilty.

Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million to two former Georgia poll workers who sued him for lies he spread about them in 2020. turned their lives upside down. He later filed for bankruptcy.

“All of this should be a deterrent to any thinking lawyer who might want to do something like this again,” said UCLA law professor Rick Hasen.