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Powell and Chesebro owe an apology to the nation, not only to Georgia [1]

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Date: 2023-10-23  

Both Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro have now pled guilty to crimes in apparent furtherance of a conspiratorial effort led and inspired by Donald Trump to overturn a free and fair election in the United States. Because their crimes relate specifically to actions conducted in the state of Georgia, both Powell and Chesebro have been required as part of their plea deals to write “letters of apology” to the citizens of Georgia, in addition to fulfilling their other obligations under the prosecutor’s plea arrangement.

It is reasonable to assume that others indicted in the criminal cases still underway in Georgia and the District of Columbia may also accept plea deals at some point. Several of those individuals, such as John Eastman, Rudolph Giuliani and Jeffrey Clark are also attorneys. As many have pointed out, the seeming leniency of the plea deals accepted by Powell and Chesebro reflect the practical strategy of Fulton County District attorney Fani Willis to obtain inculpatory testimony against Donald Trump and the other alleged conspirators more central to the overall scheme. From a prosecution standpoint that is logical, and in fact it is a standard practice for prosecutors to obtain criminal convictions, particularly in RICO cases. However, given the nature of the alleged conspiracy involving these specific individuals, requiring an apology directed simply to the citizens of Georgia is, quite frankly, woefully inadequate under the circumstances.

Evidently Powell has only seen fit to apologize for her illegal actions in Coffee County, Georgia. Chesebro will likely follow suit. This was all that was required by District Attorney Willis ,who obviously must represent the citizens of her state. However, the conspiracy alleged here was, by all appearances, intended to effect a national result. Trump had no interest in the specifics of Georgia's election processes unless he could use them as a basis to cast doubt upon (or invalidate) the entire election. Likewise, Powell and Chesebro knew the overarching, national implications of what they were seeking to do was not limited to Coffee County, Georgia. Because these lawyer defendants caused real national harm to the country through their actions, for any apology to be adequate, it must be equally national in its scope. They should be apologizing to the entire country, not just to the Georgia voters they planned to disenfranchise.

Why should we be concerned about a seemingly minor, even mundane aspect of these plea deals as an "apology letter?" Because like Trump (in his capacity as president at the time these acts were perpetrated) attorneys Powell, Chesebro and the others had a responsibility beyond simply serving their clients through legal representation. By the nature of their profession they also had an implicit duty to this country, specifically the democratic institutions that make their service to that law possible. This is not some idyllic, aspirational goal; it is explicitly spelled out in the preamble to The American Bar Association’s’ Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which states “[A] lawyer should further the public's understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system because legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.”

This statement reflects the reality that those granted the privilege of wielding the formidable power of law assume a responsibility not to distort it, abuse or falsify it, or seek clever ways to circumvent it to the detriment of our democratic traditions. All of a lawyer’s training occurs within an institutional framework, and at the heart of that framework are the integrity of our constitutional and democratic institutions that allow the practice of law to exist in this country. That is one reason why every state imposes some version of an ethical code. Actions by lawyers that violate this responsibility become even more egregious when the nation's constitutionally-sanctioned institutions -- such as representative elections -- are ignored or disregarded. Powell and Chesebro know this full well, as do all of the other lawyer defendants. It’s not only a codified principle in the Model Rules, it’s basic common sense.

By seeking to spin a patently frivolous narrative of election fraud in pursuing Trump’s scheme these attorneys not only likely violated ethical standards common to their profession, they did it in full awareness of the national implications. The attempt to overturn of an entire, legitimate election — entailing the purposeful disenfranchisement of over 80 million American voters — is an institutional violation of unprecedented, mind-boggling proportions. Yet that’s exactly what they tried to do. And now, three years later, one-third of all Americans still believe the 2020 election was illegitimate. That is the consequence to millions of Americans of this campaign of disinformation, thanks to Trump and his hired team of election denialists.

Mother Jones’ reporter Dan Friedman recognizes this:

Powell, a Texas-based attorney who first gained national attention representing Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, has spun elaborate, bogus conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that involve a lot more people than Georgia’s 11 million residents. Her lies implicated numerous states, countries, institutions, and people.

Friedman suggests that Powell (and implicitly Chesebro) can begin by apologizing not only to the citizens of Georgia but those in every state whose residents were intended to be impacted by her lies. These include every state where a lawsuit was filed by Trump’s team of attorney supporters under bogus pretenses to overturn the will of that states’ voters. Friedman references allegations leveled by Powell and Giuliani implicating election practices in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona, but he could just as easily link the conduct in Coffee County, Georgia to every state in the U.S., since every state included voters who would have been disenfranchised had this calculated, coordinated web of lies actually succeeded. Friedman also suggests, somewhat rhetorically, that Powell apologize to her fellow attorneys in Texas; to the countries of Germany and Spain, who were falsely implicated for sheltering companies involved in voter fraud schemes; to the Capitol Police who were forced to defend this country’s sacred ground on Jan. 6; even to all Jewish people whom she maligned with her coded, anti-Semitic references to an alleged “Soros-led” conspiracy. And it’s certainly true that all of these discrete groups could legitimately claim harm from Powell and Chesebro’s actions.

But from a broader standpoint, the behavior of these attorneys showed a complete disregard of their own professional responsibilities, not only to the state of Georgia, but to the entire nation. That was the ultimate purpose of Trump’s effort and the efforts of all those who supported it, and that is where and how any “apology” should be directed. If acting to overthrow the U.S. government can be considered an act of expatriation worthy of deportation, if not outright stripping of citizenship, then there is no reason these American lawyers — who knew their responsibility — deserve any special consideration for trying to achieving the same end.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/23/2201065/-The-treachery-of-Trump-s-lawyers-warrants-far-more-than-an-apology-only-to-Georgia-s-citizens?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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