Trump Lawyer Cases Show 2020 Election Punishments Come Slowly

Mounting sanctions cases against some of Donald Trump’s 2020 election lawyers show the legal establishment is moving to punish abuses tied to the contest, even as the wheels turn slowly.

At least three attorneys—Rudolph Giuliani, John Eastman, and Kenneth Chesebro—have had law licenses suspended. They’re part of a group dragging out the process in multiple states, with allies arguing they are the victims of politically motivated witch hunts.

Ethics experts cheer on the reckoning. “If you’re going to rob a bank with a gun, you don’t need a lawyer,” said Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. “But fraudsters often need and often use lawyers to commit their fraud.”

The collection of disciplinary actions pending against Trump’s election lawyers—much like the 2020 election itself—have no modern precedent. The legal profession is sorting out the cases even as it girds itself for a rematch of the presidential contenders from four years ago.

Just as the 1970s Watergate scandal put a spotlight on government and legal ethics, the 2020 election is testing the legal establishment’s ability to discipline wayward attorneys, said Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota Law School professor.

“These lawyers’ actions have brought discredit to the bar, and the bar has a role in reining that in,” Painter said. “There’s a great concern that our democracy was in peril and that these lawyers went way overboard.”

The disciplinary process has taken too long in some cases, such as those for Jeffrey Clark and Eastman, Kathleen Clark said. “The fact that it’s taken four years suggests current structures are not up to the task,” Clark said.

Jim Robenalt, a Thompson Hine partner who teaches legal education courses with Watergate whistleblower John Dean, said “there is no question that the 2020 election woke up the bar associations in some places.” But he noted the disparity between New York bar officials, who speedily suspended Giuliani’s law license, and a Texas trial court that dismissed a complaint that Sidney Powell violated ethics rules.

New York Law School Professor Rebecca Roiphe, who was blocked from being a First Amendment witness for Eastman, warned that disbarment proceedings can become political fodder.

It can be hard to “articulate a neutral principle” that separates the behavior of Trump’s election lawyers “from widely accepted behavior by other lawyers,” Roiphe said. “These disciplinary hearings open themselves up to accusations that they have been weaponized to serve a political end.”

Here’s a rundown of some of the most notable cases state lawyer organizations and courts are pursuing:

Jeffrey Clark

A DC Bar committee on April 4 preliminarily found Clark violated at least one ethics rule by lying about alleged election fraud. The panel will decide as early as next month before sending the matter to the Board on Professional Responsibility. The case then goes to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

The bar’s DC disciplinary counsel, Hamilton “Phil” Fox, is seeking Clark’s disbarment. The bar bodies and the appeals court could decide on lesser sanctions, such as a written warning.

John Eastman

A California State Bar Court judge on March 27 said Eastman should be disbarred for knowingly making false statements that election irregularities cost Trump the 2020 race.

The bar court’s appellate division will review the finding, and the state’s highest court will ultimately decide. Eastman has said he could seek US Supreme Court review.

Though Eastman has yet to be disbarred, he is ineligible to practice law in California, according to his online law license. Eastman challenged his “inactive” law license status on April 3. The State Bar argued on April 10 that Eastman needs to be sidelined because he has shown he is willing “to misrepresent facts, violate the law, and pursue frivolous claims on behalf of clients.”

Photo Illustration: Jonathan Hurtarte/Bloomberg Law; Photos: Bloomberg Mercury, Getty Images

Rudy Giuliani

New York’s Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in June 2021 temporarily suspended Giuliani’s law license for making false, misleading statements about the election. A Democratic state senator had filed a complaint with the state’s Attorney Grievance Committee, which sought the suspension.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals followed, temporarily suspending Giuliani’s license in July 2021.

A DC Bar committee in July 2023 recommended Guliani’s disbarment for his failed election challenge in Pennsylvania. The bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility held a hearing in November. The board’s report could be issued at any time.

After the board makes its finding, the case goes to the DC Court of Appeals.

Sidney Powell

The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission in May 2023 filed a complaint claiming Powell and other lawyers brought frivolous election challenges in the state. A hearing panel of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board in December rejected Powell’s arguments that the board lacks jurisdiction.

In 2021, a US district judge in Detroit fined Powell and other attorneys more than $175,000 in 2021 for wasting resources by filing a lawsuit to overturn the election result in Michigan. The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit largely upheld the sanctions in 2023, and the US Supreme Court in February declined to hear a challenge of the appeals court decision.

In Texas, the Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline last year said it is taking its ethics case against Powell to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas. A federal judge in Texas in February 2023 threw out discipline charges that alleged Powell had violated legal ethics rules.

Jenna Ellis

In March 2023, a Colorado judge censured Ellis, who once said she was part of an “elite strike force” fighting for Trump. The judge declined to disbar Ellis for her role in making 10 false claims about the 2020 election.

Kenneth Chesebro

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court as of March 13 temporarily suspended the law license of Chesebro, an architect, along with Eastman, of a plan to create elector slates in six states. Chesebro is also unable to practice law in California, at least on an interim basis, according to his state bar online record.

Julia Haller, Brandon Johnson, Lawrence Joseph

In DC, The bar’s disciplinary counsel, Fox, on Jan. 9 filed claims against Haller, Johnson and Joseph.

He alleged that Haller and Johnson filed suits against election offices and officials in Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona seeking to overturn the election results. Fox claimed that Joseph, in a suit he filed in Texas against former Vice President Mike Pence, made claims about a “competing slate” of electors in Arizona that “had no factual basis.”