International firms now targets of attack ads over US election disinformation
Lawyers at US President Donald Trump’s law firms are expressing discontent over the firms’ roles in facilitating the president’s efforts to suggest, without evidence, that the results of the US presidential election were illegitimate.
Trump lost the election to his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has garnered at least 273 electoral votes; 270 votes are required to win. While the results have not yet been called in some states, Biden currently leads in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, opening up the possibility that he will expand his electoral lead even further.
In spite of the math, Trump has not conceded the election, and has insisted falsely that his defeat was the result of widespread fraud. He has already launched several legal challenges to the vote count in various states, almost all of which have been dismissed. However, the president is still waging a legal war to get the election results overturned.
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Abetting him in this quest are law firms Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur. Both firms are expected to represent Trump and other Republicans in various lawsuits attempting to overturn the will of the electorate, according to The Washington Post. However, the firms’ role in the president’s quest is causing dissension in the ranks, according to a New York Times report. Senior lawyers at the firms worry that they are helping Trump and his allies “undermine the integrity of American elections,” the Times reported.
The firms are also facing external pressures. The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump Republicans, is launching a multi-platform campaign to slam the firms for their role in facilitating Trump’s evidence-free quest to negate the vote, the Post reported.
Yesterday, The Lincoln Project sent out a tweet encouraging Twitter users to create LinkedIn accounts for the sole purpose of messaging lawyers at Jones Day and Porter Wright to ask “how they can work for an organization trying to overturn the will of the American people.”
Defend your democracy:
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) November 10, 2020
1. Created a LinkedIn account.
2. Message someone who works at @JonesDay or @PorterWright.
3. Ask them how they can work for an organization trying to overturn the will of the American people. https://t.co/Q3NR5xM4tjhttps://t.co/65DOcAUHYb
“These people have now decided that attempting to undermine the outcome of a just and fair election is perfectly acceptable for their legal practices,” Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist and co-founder of The Lincoln Project, told the Post.
Wilson said the campaign would include television ads and a social media push, and would also target some of Jones Day’s largest clients.
“I’d like to know how General Motors justifies working with a company that’s aggressively seeking to undermine the validity of a free and fair democratic election,” Wilson told the Post.
Wilson said that The Lincoln Project would spend about half a million dollars on the campaign at the outset, the Post reported.