Trump's aggressive assault on election integrity is reportedly making some of his outside lawyers queasy

(Image credit: Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

published 10 November 2020

"You're witnessing what might be the last gasp of Trumpism," Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman speculate at Politico. If outgoing President Trump "has a dominant ideology, it's that people on his side — his administration and his party — should be unbendingly loyal to him. And what you're seeing right now is the political and governmental machinery that he controls succumb to his anger at losing the election. And, with 71 days until Inauguration Day, this kind of behavior has a rapidly approaching termination date."

Trump is not going quietly, and senior lawyers at the two major law firms working on his behalf to challenge his likely insurmountable losses in key states — Jones Day and Porter Wright Morris & Arthur — are worried that they are "advancing arguments that lack evidence and may be helping Mr. Trump and his allies undermine the integrity of American elections," The New York Times reports.

"Six Jones Day lawyers said that given the small number of late-arriving ballots involved in the litigation" in Pennsylvania, "and the fact that they already had been segregated, the main goal of the litigation seemed to be to erode public confidence in the election results," the Times reports. Two Jones Day lawyers said they have been heckled by friends and others on social media for working at a firm supporting Trump, and others "felt that the firm risked hurting itself by taking on work that undermined the rule of law." One lawyer called this work "extremely shortsighted."

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The outcry at Porter Wright "appears more intense," with one lawyer quitting in protest of the Trump legal campaign, the Times reports. At the same time, it has been lucrative work, especially for Jones Day, which has brought in $4 million this year from Trump and his close allies and $20 million over the past five years. Read more at The New York Times.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.