Georgia DA Flags Six Attorneys in Trump RICO Case May Have Conflicts of Interest
Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis told a judge on Wednesday that at least six attorneys for former President Donald Trump’s co-defendants may have conflicts of interest in the sprawling racketeering case.
“The State requests that the Court inquire into these circumstances and take such appropriate remedial measures as it deems necessary to ensure that the rights of both witnesses for the State of Georgia and the Defendants in this case are preserved,” the DA’s legal brief states.
Those defense attorneys flagged by Willis’ team are Scott Grubman, who represents Kenneth Chesebro; Harry W. MacDougald, who represents Jeffrey Clark; Christopher Anulewicz, who represents Robert Cheeley; Bruce H. Morris, Donald Franklin Samuel, and Amanda Clark Palmer, who represent Ray Smith.
Without any investigation, Willis says, “there is a significant risk that the Rules of Professional Conduct may be violated, which may compromise the rights of certain witnesses for the State of Georgia should those witnesses be cross-examined by their former attorneys.”
Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis first began investigating the former president in 2021.BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images;AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File
“Further, there is a significant risk that representation of the affected Defendants in this matter may be materially affected, which could affect certain rights, including all of the Defendants’ rights to due process and a fundamentally fair trial,” the filing continues.
The DA says Anulewicz previously represented Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the man Trump pressured to “find 11,780 votes” in an infamous phone call. Prosecutors say that Raffensberger, members of the state elections board and Anulewicz himself may become state witnesses.
Palmer previously represented SullivanStrickler, the same firm retained by Sidney Powell’s group Defending the Republic to perform a forensic scan of voting equipment in Coffee County, Ga., according to the filing. Prosecutors say Palmer’s other former clients include ex-Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan and members of the Georgia General Assembly.
Grubman also previously represented Raffensperger.
Prosecutors say that the list of MacDougald’s possible conflicts is long, noting that he once acted as co-counsel for Powell and lawyer Lin Wood in a failed lawsuit seeking to advance conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Machines.
The three of them represented Coreco Ja’Quan Pearson, Vikki Townsend Consiglio, Gloria Kay Godwin, James Kenneth Carroll, Carolyn Hall Fisher, and Cathleen Alston Latham in that case, captioned Pearson v. Kemp.
All of those ex-clients are witnesses for the state in the DA’s racketeering case, except for Latham, who is a defendant, according to the filing.
The DA says that Wood, a staunchly pro-Trump lawyer who became one of the most visible purveyors of 2020 election conspiracy theories, is also a witness “for the state.”
The Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump group associated with Clark, replied with a meme from the 1997 movie “Starship Troopers” after The Messenger sent his attorney MacDougald a press inquiry about the conflicts notice.
A representative for The Center for Renewing America, a pro-Trump think tank, sent this meme in response to a press inquiry about allegations that Jeff Clark’s lawyer has a conflict of interest.
Grubman, the attorney for Chesebro, said that he planned to file a response later on Wednesday. The four other attorneys who are the subject of the notice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither did Wood.
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