Lawyer quits major firm Porter Wright after it started representing Trump in Pennsylvania amid mutiny from staff concerned their work will undermine the rule of law
Lawyers at the firms behind Donald Trump's 'election fraud' lawsuits have raised concerns they are helping to undermine the integrity of American elections, with at least one attorney quitting out of protest.
Several senior attorneys at Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur have spoken out on the condition of anonymity to reveal they are unhappy with their employers' association with the president and with the efforts to discredit the election process, according to the New York Times.
Nine partners and associates at Jones Day told the Times they are worried the firm is helping Trump undermine the presidential election, after the result was called for Joe Biden Saturday.
Meanwhile several lawyers at Porter Wright said they have raised their concerns about their firm's work on the election lawsuits at two internal meetings and at least one lawyer has left the firm altogether because of the suits.
The two law firms are behind four lawsuits in Pennsylvania filed on behalf of Trump, who is refusing to concede to Biden, has made a series of unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud and has filed multiple lawsuits to get votes thrown out.
Lawyers at the firms behind Donald Trump's 'election fraud' lawsuits have raised concerns they are helping to undermine the integrity of American elections, with at least one attorney quitting out of protest
One lawyer in Jones Day's Washington office said they think the law firm could be damaging its own reputation by getting involved in Trump's lawsuits which undermine the very rules of law.
'To me, it seems extremely shortsighted,' they told the Times.
A former employee also wrote in The Washington Post in September - after they left the firm in August - that 'the president's inflammatory language undercuts the claim that Republicans seek merely to uphold statutory safeguards needed to validate the results' credibility'.
Staff at the firm are also said to be feeling the impact of being associated with Trump's legal efforts.
Two lawyers told the Times they had been blasted on social media for working at the firm in recent days while demonstrators calling for every vote to be counted painted a huge mural reading 'Jones Day, Hands Off Our Ballots' outside the San Francisco office last week.
Several senior lawyers had raised concerns about the firm's ties to Trump as far back as 2016, according to three Jones Day partners, when it first began working closely with him.
One of the firm's partners Donald F. McGahn II became Trump's outside lawyer during his 2016 race for the White House playing a key part in calling for vote recounts in swing states.
Gahn was pictured next to Trump onstage after he won the New Hampshire primary in 2016 and then became Trump's White House counsel when he took office, before returning to his position at the firm.
Another partner at the firm Noel Francisco also became Trump's first solicitor general and another Eric Dreiband became assistant attorney general in the Justice Department.
Jones Day partner Donald F. McGahn II (pictured) was Trump's outside lawyer during his 2016 race for the White House then became Trump's White House counsel when he took office
However, while many brushed their concerns to one side back in 2016, several attorneys are growing increasingly unhappy with the nature of the current work.
Six attorneys told the Times they believe the firm's Supreme Court bid to separate ballots that arrived after election day in Pennsylvania - when the secretary of state had already ordered the same move - was done simply to erode public confidence in the election.
Lawyers at Porter Wright in Ohio are equally unhappy with the firm's links to Trump's baseless claims of election fraud.
Three current and former employees told the Times they were concerned when they found out in the summer it would be representing the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania.
One lawyer said he quit when he found out while another said he was worried Trump would seek the firm's help in trying to delay the election.
Lawyers voiced their concerns at two separate meetings but partners sought to reassure them by saying their work was limited to Pennsylvania - despite being a crucial swing state.
Two lawyers at Jones Day told the Times they had been blasted on social media for working at the firm in recent days while demonstrators calling for every vote to be counted painted a huge mural reading 'Jones Day, Hands Off Our Ballots' outside the San Francisco office (above)
Several attorneys at Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur have revealed they are unhappy with their employers' association with the president and with the efforts to discredit the election process, according to the New York Times
The two firms have profited significantly from their work with Trump.
Porter Wright has received at least $727,000 in fees from the Trump campaign and RNC and Jones Day has raked in more than $20 million since 2015, according to federal records.
On Monday, the Trump campaign filed another lawsuit in Pennsylvania court against the secretary of state and seven counties making its case to throw out more than 600,000 votes
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Pennsylvania, claims there was an illegal 'two-tiered' voting system where voters were held to different standards depending on whether they voted in person or by mail.
According to the lawsuit, 'Allegheny and Philadelphia Counties alone received and processed 682,479 mail-in and absentee ballots without review by the political parties and candidates.'
But the suit seems to confirm there were in fact observers present.
It states that 'Allegheny and Pennsylvania counties conducted the canvassing and tabulation in convention center rooms and placed observers far away from the action.'
It charges that Democratic-run counties engaged in pre-canvassing activities 'by reviewing received mail-in ballots for deficiencies, such as lacking the inner secrecy envelope or lacking a signature of the elector on the outer declaration envelope.'
Under state law litigated before the election, mail-in votes had to be placed inside a special security sleeve and then placed inside a second envelope to be counted.
Election officials are sometimes allowed to help voters 'cure' their ballots by contacting them to avoid their vote being trashed.
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