Three guilty pleas in Georgia are an ominous sign for the former president. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

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Three lawyers who worked to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat pleaded guilty in the past week in Georgia state court: Sidney Powell for illegally accessing voting equipment after the election, Kenneth Chesebro for gathering fake electors who would cast illegitimate votes for Trump, and Jenna Ellis for lying to lawmakers about voter fraud. They could be powerful witnesses in the prosecutions of Trump and two other attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

After their bizarre roles in the post-2020 farce, it’s easy to forget that Powell and Chesebro, at least, are highly experienced lawyers. Before Powell threatened to “release the Kraken

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” on Trump’s behalf and claimed Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez was manipulating U.S. election results long after his death, she spent 10 years as a federal prosecutor. Chesebro holds a law degree from Harvard and worked on the Bush v. Gore 2000 election case (on Gore’s side!).

Their guilty pleas remind us of the dangers of flying too close to the sun. The glamor of the Oval Office, the media glare, and chance for 15 minutes of fame affect people powerfully. Because they could not resist that pull, Powell, Chesebro, and Ellis (and Giuliani, and Eastman . . . ) now join a club of lawyers who disgraced themselves in service of an unscrupulous president.

As a young lawyer in the Nixon administration, John Dean was a duty officer carrying out the Watergate cover-up. When things spun out of control, Dean warned Nixon that “some people are going have to go to jail

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” if the president continued to bury the facts.

“Who?” Nixon asked.

“I think I could.”

Nixon assured his young aide that could never happen, because “you are a lawyer, you are a counsel.” Dean found out the hard way that was wrong, serving time even after he told the nation about Nixon’s crimes. Describing the conversation later, Dean said of Nixon, “He clearly wanted to engage in criminal behavior and he would blame everybody but himself.” (Dean, for his part, is now a reliable advocate for democracy. He has conducted legal ethics training for attorneys, with his own experience serving as a cautionary tale.)

Trump is likewise blaming everyone but himself. He now claims Powell was never his attorney. That’s not true — she was officially on his legal team, and even after the engagement formally ended, she remained in contact with him. In any event, the absence of an attorney-client relationship will not save Trump from prosecution. Powell, Chesebro, and Ellis are going to talk, and I doubt Trump will like what they have to say.

The falls of Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, and Jenna Ellis are also an important reminder to lawyers everywhere that the attorney-client relationship is not a license to break the law, and bar membership is not a guarantee of immunity. Even the attorney-client privilege — one of the strongest bars on evidence collection in U.S. law — falls away when a client uses his lawyer in furtherance of a crime.

It’s no wonder a veritable who’s who of high-profile attorneys has reportedly rebuffed Trump’s attempts to enlist their services. The presidency has powerful magnetism, but the repulsive power of prison is even stronger.





A Growing Pro-Democracy Movement

States have continued to push anti-voter legislation at a breakneck pace in 2023, with 14 states enacting laws that will make it harder to vote. But there is good news: 23 states have enacted laws to make voting easier, and there are nearly three times as many new expansive laws as new restrictive laws this year. The latest edition of our Voting Laws Roundup spotlights the wave of pro-voter legislation that has followed the 2022 midterms and breaks down trends in laws that aim to restrict democratic participation and leave elections open to partisan interference. Read more

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Analyzing National Crime Data

The FBI’s newly released report on crime in 2022 offered some encouraging signs after the sharp rise in violence in 2020. Murder rates dropped by 6.5 percent, and violent crime also fell, though rates of car thefts spiked significantly. A new Brennan Center analysis explains what to make of the report’s key findings and highlights the crime trends to keep an eye on in 2023. READ MORE

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SCOTUS Weighs In on Criminal Justice Reform

For the first case of its new term, the Supreme Court will consider how much discretion federal judges should have to impose lenient sentences under certain circumstances. The case hinges on competing interpretations of the wording of the First Step Act — a landmark criminal justice reform bill enacted in 2018 — and the sentences of thousands of people hang in the balance. “Looking at Congress’s intent in passing the legislation, as well as the basic principles of criminal law, offers a strong case for granting judges broader discretion,” Stephanie Wylie writes. Read more

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Scrutinizing DHS Abuses of Civil Liberties

The Department of Homeland Security oversees various programs that determine people’s ability to travel based on whether or not they pose a potential risk to national security. However, these efforts have fundamental defects that endanger Americans’ civil liberties, with little evidence that they help keep the public safe. DHS and Congress must evaluate the efficacy and harms of these programs, Rachel Levinson-Waldman and José Guillermo Gutiérrez write, or they “will continue to operate in a faulty and discriminatory manner that undermines core American values.” Read more

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Tech Titans’ Role in Defending Elections

We can expect artificial intelligence tools to amplify the threats of phishing attacks against election officials, rampant misinformation, and other assaults on our democracy. While regulating AI is clearly necessary, it won’t happen in time to protect the next election. “As the ones responsible for unleashing and enabling these unprecedented threats to our democracy, tech companies — especially AI developers and social media platforms — must step up and play a leading role in keeping our elections secure,” Lawrence Norden and UC Berkeley’s David Evan Harris write. READ MORE

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News

Kareem Crayton on the North Carolina legislature’s congressional map proposal // NC NEWSLINE

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Ames Grawert on the FBI’s 2022 crime report // NPR

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Yurij Rudensky on the impact of discriminatory electoral maps in Texas // PROPUBLICA

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Wendy Weiser on the election denialism movement // SLATE

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