Democrats who challenge elections are defenders of democracy, but Republicans who challenge elections are the enemies of it and must be punished accordingly.
And with punishments doled out recently against all involved — even remotely — in challenging the 2020 election, it could be said that the scales of justice are perpetually weighed in the favor of one political party. This appears to be especially true for Arizona lawyers who dared represent clients filing legal challenges against the 2020 election, including Arizona State Representative Alex Kolodin, Kory Langhofer, Lee Miller, Christopher Viskovic, Chris Ford, Sue Becker, Brett Johnson, Eric Spencer, Thomas Basile, Davis Spilsbury, Erick Kaardal, William Mohrman, Gregory Erickson, Brandon Johnson, Emily P. Newman, Howard Kleinhendler, Julia Zuszua Haller, Jack Wilenchik, and L. Lin Wood.
Victor Aronow, Roxana Bacon, Amelia Craig Cramer, Brendan Mahoney, Robert McWhirter, Gaile Natale, Diane Post, and Michael Teter (managing director of The 65 Project) filed a complaint last August.
Several of these complainants carry significant influence in the state concerning bar matters. Both Bacon and Craig Cramer were formerly presidents of the State Bar of Arizona Board of Governors, and McWhirter still sits on the State Bar of Arizona Board of Governors. McWhirter was also a Democratic candidate for the 2022 attorney general and 2020 Maricopa County attorney races.
A review of some of the other complainants past public remarks and actions reveal that they had challenged elections in the past, not unlike their ideological foes.
Days after Trump was elected, Mahoney promised to protest the inauguration over Trump’s legitimacy. He also shared several articles rejecting the legitimacy of the presidency: one calling for relentless protest against Trump, another claiming that Russia secured Trump’s election, and another claiming that the GOP orchestrated a coup in North Carolina to secure Trump’s election.
“We don’t owe Trump ‘an open mind and a chance to lead.’ We owe him nothing but our ferocious opposition in the streets, and that starts today,” stated one of the articles shared.
In April 2016, Post filed an affidavit in a lawsuit accusing Maricopa County of misconduct and demanding a partial ballot recount. In her affidavit, Post claimed that she witnessed Democratic voters being disproportionately forced to vote by provisional ballot while serving as a poll worker.
Come October, Post was taking to Twitter to tell voters to not cast their ballot.
“Take [Donald Trump’s] advice[:] election is rigged,” said Post. “Stay home and do not waste time voting. He never lies to [you] right.”
After Trump won, Post claimed that Trump and Republicans would get rid of elections by establishing a dictatorship, with the alleged help of Russia getting Trump into office.
Specifically, Post alleged that the county’s computer check-in system wouldn’t allow her to give the proper ballots to 58 voters, 36 of whom she claimed were Democrats.
The 65 Project is a Democratic dark money campaign attempting to punish and disbar lawyers that challenged the results of the 2020 election, created by Melissa Moss: former Clinton administration official, Democratic National Committee finance director, and Democratic Leadership Council national field director. Prior to this project, Teter had former roles as the executive director of Facts First USA and general counsel and COO of RepresentUS, two leftist dark money groups.
Several lawyers speaking on the condition of anonymity questioned the disparity in treatment of lawyers fighting on behalf of Democrats versus lawyers siding with Republicans.
“The bar has viciously gone after Republican attorneys based on anonymous complaints from third parties asserting such grounds as violating attorney-client privilege, something heretofore was only raised and investigated if the client lodged the complaint,” said one attorney. “Bottom line is the bar has broad discretion to open an investigation or not. And they seem to take the most interest when a Republican attorney is implicated and go out of their way to turn a blind eye when a Democrat attorney is implicated.”
Critics point out that the bar has created a two-tiered system by applying a double standard that doles out punishment to conservatives, who make election-related claims at the behest of liberals, who have engaged in the exact same behavior.
Based on the recent takedowns of other GOP lawyers, it’s likely they are bracing for sanctions with the faint hope of the bar recognizing that the complainants could be accountable for election denialism as well.