The Legal Minds Who Tried to Overturn the Election for Trump Are Being Welcomed Back...

[Nevilledog]

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Rick Hasen
@rickhasen
Me new one @Slate: The Legal Minds Who Tried to Overturn the Election for Trump Are Being Welcomed Back Into Polite Society
Rewards for John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark

The Legal Minds Who Tried to Overturn the Election for Trump Are Being Welcomed Back Into Polite...
We need more of the courage that we saw in the aftermath of the 2020 elections, not more silence and acquiescence.
slate.com
7:19 AM · Sep 1, 2021

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/09/trump-john-eastman-2020-election-law.html


Though it hasn’t received the attention it deserves, courage from Republican election officials and leaders helped save this country from a total election meltdown in 2020 based on lies about voter fraud from the incumbent president, Donald Trump. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger refused to “find” more than 11,000 presidential votes in Georgia, as Trump personally requested, declining to give Georgia’s legislature an excuse to falsely declare Trump won the state. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen rejected entreaties to have the Department of Justice claim fraud in states Biden won. He did so despite pressure from Trump and Jeffrey Clark, a DOJ official who vied for Rosen’s job and was ready to do Trump’s bidding potentially in violation of federal law. And Federalist Society judges such as Stephanos Bibas excoriated bogus Trump attempts to overturn the election in court without evidence or solid legal theories.

But memories fade fast. On the right, within the Federalist Society, and even among others who apparently value civility over preserving democracy, some are quietly welcoming back into the fold those who would have stolen the election for Trump or who fomented the violent Jan. 6 insurrection. Most appear to be doing so not because they supported the insurrection or Trump’s ridiculous claims but out of willful ignorance of the facts or in the name of civility or free speech. It’s a mistake, and it’s taking us down a dangerous path.

Almost a month ago, Mark Joseph Stern wrote about how Jeffrey Clark had landed a cushy job as Chief of Litigation and Director of Strategy at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative-libertarian law firm that battles “the administrative state.” Among those on the Board of Advisors of NCLA are former D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown and noted libertarian law professors Randy Barnett and Eugene Volokh. Despite entreaties, nobody involved in the organization has spoken out about Clark’s appointment.

Or consider the Federalist Society and its relationship with John Eastman, a former Chapman University law school professor who “retired” under pressure after representing Trump in bogus election lawsuits and after he gave an incendiary speech just before insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. As law Professor Jim Oleske explained in a post on a listserv for constitutional law professors, Eastman was using his weight as an academic to rile up the crowd with lies: “Eastman purported to be able to speak with authority, at length, and definitively that ‘[w]e know there was fraud, traditional fraud’ because ‘[t]hey put those ballots in a secret folder in the machines, … they were unloading the ballots from that secret folder, … [a]nd voila! We have enough folks to barely get over the finish line. We saw it happened in real time last night [during the Georgia Senate runoff], and it happened on November 3rd as well.’” The claims were bogus and have been repeatedly debunked. Eastman, meanwhile, has remarkably since claimed that the insurrection was caused by “antifa.”

*snip*

[TheRealNorth]

1. Well, some of us have been saying that if there are not serious repercussions ...

For those that plotted and participated in 1/06, then all it was is a rehearsal for next time. And the next time, there may Republican sycophants in charge of the armed forces.

[Evolve Dammit]

4. Agreed. Almost zero accountability 8 months later. The planning is well under way for the next one.

[uponit7771]

6. +1, we should be erroring on the side of going to far with these assholes

[Caliman73]

2. Likely more accurate than not...however...

The author is using the Federalist Society and NCLA as signs that Trumpist lawyers are welcome back in polite society? Both organizations are whack farms, the very place that breeds idiots like Eastman and Clark.

Now, they should do a piece on how a POS like Barr, who had a huge roll in Iran Contra, and other treacherous actions in the Reagan and Bush administrations, was considered "the adult in the room" by not only conservative/libertarian whack ass organizations, but by people in DC who should have known better.

There will ALWAYS be a place within conservative/libertarian circles for assholes who carry water for the cause. The big sin in those places is actually having a sense of decency and a prosocial perspective.

[uponit7771]

7. +1, yep Low Barr advised Bush 1 on pardoning Iran Contra folk

[Caliman73]

9. To me, this is a bigger controversy than two nutjobs going to work for nutjob agencies.

The Federalist Society is responsible for Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett. You really think that they care that Eastman and Clark counseled Trump on how to overturn the election?

Barr was Attorney General, twice!! Both times he disgraced the office and VERY likely broke laws. The man should be in prison.

So should Eastman and Clark mind you, but I am not sure that they will be in "polite society". They may be part of the next Republican Administration however, so we need to make sure there are no more Republican Administrations by voting to keep them out of power.

[uponit7771]

10. +1

[Boomerproud]

12. Both whack farms seem to hold considerable sway.

I wouldn't dismiss them so easily. They have made our lives hell for the past 5 years.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Clark needs to be disbarred and prosecuted

Eastman is a joke and hopefully no one is paying attention to him.

[Nevilledog]

8. Update

Link to tweet

[Ford_Prefect]

5. If someone can supply the tar I know where an abundance of chickenhawk feathers can be found.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

11. Lock them up!!!!!