Lawyers can’t lie.
That was the verbal punch to the gut that Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Wilson to an annual gathering of judges and lawyers in the state. This is a time in history, Wilson said, when democracy is in danger, and members of the legal profession have to play a role in protecting it.
“The public square is increasingly filled with those — including, to my great shame, more than a few lawyers — who are willing to lie to the public, to pour gas on their lack of trust, simply to gain a little short-term popularity,†Wilson said.
Missouri’s chief justice didn’t name names, but he didn’t have to. He was talking, at least in part, about those attorneys who have used their profession and the courts to advance the false premise that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. He didn’t name Rudi Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman ... or Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
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But a week after Wilson’s speech, a new national nonprofit that has been filing ethics complaints against attorneys who fueled the Jan. 6 insurrection . The attorney general used his support of Trump’s “Big Lie†to help kickstart his campaign for U.S. Senate.
“Although many attorneys participated in this scheme, Mr. Schmitt played an important role — lending the legal profession’s credibility to the destructive cause and using public office to amplify false assertions and frivolous claims that lacked any basis in law or fact,†reads the complaint, filed with the chief disciplinary counsel in Missouri on Sept. 21. “A full investigation by your office will demonstrate the egregious nature of Mr. Schmitt’s actions, especially when considered in light of his purposes and the direct and possible consequences of his behavior.â€
As I’ve previously reported, Schmitt was a ringleader among Republican attorneys general who falsely questioned the Pennsylvania results in the presidential election. He was also part of a group that encouraged the rallies around Jan. 6 that eventually led to the violent assault on the Capitol.
Schmitt, the complaint argues, violated multiple ethics rules — the ones cited by Wilson that bring honor and credibility to the legal profession — by signing legal documents he reasonably had to know were false and frivolous claims.
“Mr. Schmitt chose to offer his professional license to Mr. Trump’s arsenal during the latter’s assault on our democracy,†the complaint alleges. “He cannot be shielded from the consequences of that decision simply because he holds high public office.â€
, which is bipartisan and named after the 65 lawsuits Trump-aligned attorneys brought to overturn the election, has filed more than 50 complaints against attorneys involved in some way in the insurrection or who pushed the legal case that Trump won the election. Several of the complaints are advancing through various states’ disciplinary processes, which could result in attorneys losing their licenses or other forms of punishment.
Michael Teter, the managing director of The 65 Project, said the organization got started for the same reasons Wilson cited in his speech. Protecting the independence and ethics of the judiciary, and the legal profession in general, is necessary to preserving American democracy. Lawyers who use the courts to lie in order to advance a political agenda must face consequences.
“We thought that the abuse of the legal system was becoming a political tool, and there needed to be a deterrent from that continuing,†Teter says. “Lawyers are responsible for democracy just as much as politicians are. Without the rule of law there is no democracy. We agree as lawyers to abide by a certain set of standards. If you don’t discipline lawyers who violate those rules, then there’s no purpose of having those rules.â€
Schmitt is heavily favored in his Senate race against Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine. But that potential electoral victory will have been built partly on a foundation of dishonesty that could cause long-term damage to the country.
It’s why Teter’s group will press forward with its ethics complaint, as will a group of ºüÀêÊÓƵ attorneys who filed a similar complaint against U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley for his role in pushing Trump’s Big Lie. Their original complaint was denied by Missouri’s chief disciplinary counsel, but they have filed an appeal. Teter’s group has not filed a complaint against Hawley, in part because the ethics rules are stronger when an attorney is acting on behalf of a client, as Schmitt was, as compared to purely political action.
In the end, both complaints could come before Wilson’s court. He’d have an opportunity to test the theme of his recent speech, in which he warned of another time in history, when a push toward authoritarianism devastated the courts in another country.
“In 1930s Germany, the judiciary failed in its duty,†Wilson said. “They were told to render decisions more in keeping with the prevailing will, rather than the law ... and they did. So, bit by bit, German judges and German lawyers followed the mob down into the worst hell anyone has ever imagined. It took a decade and tens of millions of lives to pick up the pieces when an independent judiciary stopped being independent … and stopped being judicial. I hope and pray we are never tested like the lawyers and judges in Germany or Ukraine but, if we are, which path will we choose?â€