Several lawyers who were involved in challenges aligned with Donald Trump after the last presidential election to the duly documented victory by now President Joe Biden are facing allegations of misconduct (termed “charges,” though not criminal) in the context of their professional work from authorities in D.C. Those named include Juli Haller, Lawrence Joseph, and Brandon Johnson.
A filing naming Joseph highlights his involvement in a lawsuit from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) that challenged the legality of the piece of federal law termed the Electoral Count Act. Joseph stands accused of making brazenly false representations in the course of that case, including references to sham electors for Trump from states where Biden had won that presented the purported members of the electoral college backing Trump as though they’d been legitimized.
“In the complaint filed in Texas, Respondent claimed that the Republican slate of electors in Arizona, whom he referred to as “[t]he Arizona Electors,” had convened in the Arizona State Capitol with the knowledge and permission of the Republican-majority Arizona Legislature and, pursuant to the requirements of applicable state laws and the Electoral Count Act, had cast their votes for Trump,” the filing asserts.
That description of events did not match reality. The purported electors for Trump were allies of the then-president who signed their names to claimed electoral votes for which there was no clear foundation in law considering the documentation of wins in the popular vote by Biden. Joseph’s case, though, attempted to use claims of competing slates of electoral votes to argue against the routine implementation of Electoral Count Act provisions as previously established — meaning the legal framework in which the vice president, when presiding over the Congressional proceedings to certify results of a presidential race, executes responsibilities strictly procedural in nature.
Despite pressure from Trump’s circles including via the Joseph/Gohmert lawsuit for Mike Pence to undertake some kind of intervening action, the vice president was not there to decide on the legitimacy of presented electoral votes. Joseph in particular is accused of having “made false statements of material fact and/or failed to correct false statements of material facts to a tribunal,” among other violative actions. The proceedings against him and the other two lawyers will take place under the ultimate authority of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, a local (rather than federal) judicial body.
