Lincoln Project Targets Law Firms Working for GOP on Election

A conservative group that gained prominence on Twitter for its ads opposing President Donald Trump is targeting two law firms that are helping Republicans in their legal battle over the Nov. 3 election.

The Lincoln Project sent a tweet on Tuesday to its 2.7 million followers, encouraging them to contact employees of Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP through LinkedIn and “ask them how they can work for an organization trying to overturn the will of the American people.” It encouraged employees of the two firms to “resign in protest.”

The group has vowed to spend $500,000 on its pressure campaign against the two firms.

Jones Day said in a statement that it isn’t representing the president or his campaign in any case alleging voter fraud. The firm is representing the Republican Party of Pennsylvania in a case seeking to block the counting of mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day that the U.S. Supreme Court is considering taking up.

Founded in Cleveland more than a century ago, Jones Day is the 10th-biggest U.S. law firm, with 2,500 attorneys and gross revenue of more than $2 billion, according to data the firm reported to The American Lawyer, a trade publication. Its clients have included Walmart, Fox News Network, Chevron, RJ Reynolds, JPMorgan Chase and Experian Information Solutions.

As of last month, the firm had received $2.9 million in legal fees from the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee combined, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Porter Wright, of Columbus, Ohio, is representing the Trump campaign in a suit to block certification of the Pennsylvania election results and seeking to disqualify hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots from the Democratic-leaning cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia on the grounds that campaign workers weren’t given enough access to monitor them for possible fraud.

The firm didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the group’s media campaign.

The Lincoln Project, founded late last year by former Republican operatives to thwart the president’s re-election effort, became known for its irreverent, sometimes mocking ads. Its aggressive media forays have included a giant billboard in New York’s Times Square showing a smiling Ivanka Trump next to a grim array of U.S. Covid-19 fatality statistics and Jared Kushner above a long line of body bags. It had to take down a tweet that included the phone numbers of two lawyers, violating Twitter rules.

The group’s founders include George Conway, the husband of former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net;
Christopher Opfer in New York at copfer5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net

Peter Jeffrey, Joe Schneider

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