Attorney Cleta Mitchell accompanied President Donald Trump when the president called GOP Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and threatened Raffensperger with “a criminal offense” unless he could “find” enough votes to change the state’s presidential results.
The New York Times reported that Mitchell had been advising Trump in violation of a policy that her firm, Foley & Lardner, had that prohibited its lawyers from representing clients who were involved in relitigating the presidential election. After submitting her resignation, Mitchell vowed to “redouble” her efforts to protect the “integrity” of the election.
Mitchell, it should be noted, remained silent when Trump reportedly violated federal laws by intimidating the state’s top election official to change the results of an election that had twice been confirmed by hand recounts.
In August Trump was charged with 18 others with trying to overturn his loss in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.
The grand jury recommended charging Mitchell for soliciting election fraud, witness interference, making false statements, and a host of other offenses.
But Mitchell was not included among the other defendants.
The investigative journalism website The Intercept said that Mitchell “is arguably the most central player in the attempt to steal the election who isn’t facing prison time.”
Mitchell worked closely with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to keep Trump in the White House. The New York Times reported that it was Mitchell who “enlisted John Eastman, the Trump attorney who used a questionable” – one might say cockamamie — legal theory to argue that Vice President Mike Pence “could keep Mr. Trump in power.”
See John Eastman, who also was included in the Georgia indictment.
Trump’s own head of election security Christopher Krebs called the 2020 election the most secure election in U.S. history.
https://www.vox.com/2020/11/13/21563825/2020-elections-most-secure-dhs-cisa-krebs
Mitchell, however, claimed without evidence that dead people voted in the election.
She did not identify whether the dead people voted for Trump.
The New York Times reported that Mitchell was working with the Republican National Committee and far-right organizations – or perhaps more accurately farther-right organizations — to challenge the legitimacy of future elections. The newspaper said Mitchell “is recruiting election conspiracists into an organized cavalry of activists monitoring elections.”
This presumably includes seances to sway the dead-people bloc toward voting for Republicans.
Ms. Mitchell says she is creating “a volunteer army of citizens” who can counter what she describes as Democratic bias in election offices.
“We’re going to be watching. We’re going to take back our elections,” she said in an April interview with a conservative radio host. “The only way they win is to cheat.”
Mitchell — again, again, again — had no evidence to support her claim.
The Times discredited as false Mitchell’s claim that Trump “lost the election because of improper conduct in election offices or rampant voter fraud.” Instead, the newspaper said, Trump’s loss is undisputed among election officials – including Brad Raffensperger of Georgia – and the defeat was certified by Republicans and Democrats. This certification, the newspaper said, included many recounts and audits that all verified the outcome. “Trump’s Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud,” The Times said. “Mr. Trump lost more than 50 of his post-election challenges in court.”
Mitchell appears to take what she learned about the 2020 election to influence the 2024 election.
“Cleta Mitchell played this key role in trying to overturn the 2020 election and is now working to shape the rules and practices of 2023 and beyond. To me, that’s the most concerning thing in all of this,” Brendan Fischer, deputy director of the investigative research group Documented told The Intercept.
“She’s in a place where she’s connected with the election-denying grassroots,” Fischer said, “continues to have an open door with elected officials, and can move significant financial resources toward backing the latest election conspiracy projects.”
