Lincoln Project Taps Paul Hastings to Probe Harassment Claims

The Lincoln Project has retained Big Law firm Paul Hastings to investigate allegations that one of its former top officials, John Weaver, made several unwanted sexual advances toward young men.

The group, composed in large part of Republicans opposed to former President Trump, retained Paul Hastings as part of an internal probe into the allegations that will include a “comprehensive review” of the group’s operations and culture.

The Lincoln Project retained the firm, and other outside consultants, “to strengthen our corporate governance, finance and operational structure, human resources, and leadership,” the group said in a statement and tweet issued Monday evening, “to position The Lincoln Project to further maximize our impact and lean into our important mission advancing democracy.”

The Lincoln Project quickly became an intractable political foe for Trump before and during the 2020 presidential campaign, in part through production of several television and social media ads. The group was formed by prominent attorneys and political operatives including former George Conway, a litigator with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and GOP campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. Conway and Schmidt have since left the Lincoln Project.

The group took a major hit in late January after news reports alleged that Weaver—a former aide in the earlier presidential campaigns of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R)—had for years sent unsolicited, sometimes sexually explicit online messages to young men. He allegedly did this while sometimes suggesting he could help them get work in politics, according to reports.

More recent reports this month, including one on Monday in USA Today, allege that the group had devolved into a “toxic workplace” rife with homophobic slurs and other discussions that included gender and sexual topics that made many workers there uncomfortable.

According to a Paul Hastings spokesman, three firm attorneys—each of whom works out of the firm’s employment law practice in its Los Angeles office—will be conducting the probe. They include partners Felicia Davis and Jeffrey Webb, and associate Lindsey Jackson. The firm’s representation of the group only involves the investigation, the spokesman said.

The Lincoln Project did not immediately responded to questions.

Prominent alternative legal services provider UnitedLex last year acquired a 20-person Paul Hastings data science, analysis, and investigations team, as part of a new partnership between the law firm and the company.