Trump lawyers pressured to end role in election challenges

Porter Wright withdrew from a federal lawsuit for the president in Pennsylvania, while Jones Day says it isn’t involved in election fraud cases.

Donald Trump plays out of the rough at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, on Sunday. Picture: AFP

Some law firms representing President Trump’s legal push to remain in the White House are withdrawing from cases or clarifying their roles amid pressure to end their involvement.

Ohio-based law firm Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP withdrew Thursday from a Trump campaign federal lawsuit seeking to stop certification of election results in Pennsylvania. International law firm Jones Day has tried in recent days to publicly distance itself from any voter-fraud suits tied to the president. Another large firm withdrew from an Arizona case a day after filing it, and other lawyers working on Trump cases have faced onslaughts of online criticism.

The Associated Press has said President-elect Joe Biden is the winner of the election after it called enough states to give him a majority in the Electoral College. Mr Trump hasn’t conceded and has told aides to keep fighting.

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in five battleground states, with a mix of local and national lawyers on their side. Judges have ruled against some of the claims, and Trump lawyers have voluntarily dismissed others.

The Lincoln Project, a political-action committee run by Republicans critical of the president, launched a social-media campaign attacking Jones Day and Porter Wright. Twitter temporarily blocked the group because it posted contact information for Porter Wright attorneys and urged followers to “make them famous.” The account was restored once the tweet was deleted.

The People’s Parity Project, a national group of students and new lawyers that seeks to limit corporate influence in the legal system, launched a pledge for law students to not interview or work for four law firms that have represented the Trump campaign or other Republican groups, including Jones Day and Porter Wright. More than 150 people have signed the pledge so far.

Lawyers for the Trump campaign said they have faced withering public criticism for their work. “I’ve never seen personal abuse and vile comments from random strangers like I’m seeing right now,” said one lawyer working on Trump campaign litigation.

A Trump campaign spokesman characterised the focus on the lawyers as “cancel culture” having reached the courtroom.

“Leftist mobs descended upon some of the lawyers representing the president’s campaign, and they buckled,” spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Friday in response to Porter Wright’s withdrawal. “The president’s team is undeterred and will move forward with rock-solid attorneys to ensure free and fair elections for all Americans.” A lawyer seeking assistance this month for a Republican candidate in a closely fought U.S. Senate race said many big law firms turned down the work on the grounds that partners agreed not to take cases that could affect the presidential race. It was part of a broader trend, the lawyer said, of firms refusing to take Trump-related work.

Law firms often represent unpopular clients, from murderers to corporate fraudsters. But large firms sometimes steer clear of politically charged clients who could damage the highly competitive recruitment of top law-school graduates, legal consultant Kent Zimmermann said.

Meanwhile, many of the lawyers handling Trump’s postelection lawsuits are at smaller firms, where far fewer partners have to sign off on each new assignment.

Porter Wright, a firm with roughly 200 lawyers in eight offices in the Midwest, Florida and Washington, DC, said Friday it reached an agreement with the Trump campaign that it would “be best served” if Porter Wright withdrew from the lawsuit to block certification of the Pennsylvania vote. Two Texas lawyers have since joined the case for Mr Trump alongside a Philadelphia lawyer.

Porter Wright said it would ensure a smooth transition and declined to comment further. The firm said it had long worked for Democratic, Republican and independent campaigns.

“We expect and have received criticism in such instances,” the firm said, “and we will always affirm the right of all individuals to express their concern and disagreement.” The firm is still working on other Pennsylvania election lawsuits.

Jones Day, with more than 2,500 lawyers around the world, has deep ties to the Trump administration, though it hasn’t taken a role in the recent lawsuits. The firm has sent more than a dozen lawyers to work in the Trump administration, including Don McGahn, who served as White House counsel and oversaw its judicial selection process before returning to Jones Day in 2019.

The firm is representing the Pennsylvania Republican Party in a lawsuit filed before the election that challenged state officials’ decision to extend the deadline for receiving mail-in ballots to three days after the election. The firm has sought to draw a distinction between that case and those that include allegations of voter fraud.

“Jones Day also is not representing any entity in any litigation challenging or contesting the results of the 2020 general election,” the firm said.

Parties have asked the US Supreme Court to review the Pennsylvania case for a second time. About 10,000 ballots arrived during the three days after Election Day, far below the margin of Mr Biden’s lead of about 63,000 votes.

Another large law firm, Snell & Wilmer LLP, withdrew from a case brought by the Trump campaign and Republicans in Arizona alleging some in-person votes in Maricopa County were improperly rejected.

The firm’s departure came after the Republican National Committee said it would only pay for one law firm to handle the case, according to people familiar with the matter. Snell & Wilmer’s chairman said the firm doesn’t comment on past or current clients. The case’s remaining Trump lawyers asked a judge Friday to dismiss the claims, saying the disputed number of ballots wasn’t enough to influence the results there.

Alexa Corse, Corinne Ramey and Rebecca Davis O’Brien contributed to this article

The Wall Street Journal