{"id":2326821,"date":"2024-08-19T13:25:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-19T17:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kamala-campaign-hires-election-meddler-as-legal-counsel\/"},"modified":"2024-08-19T13:28:37","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T17:28:37","slug":"kamala-campaign-hires-election-meddler-as-legal-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kamala-campaign-hires-election-meddler-as-legal-counsel\/","title":{"rendered":"Kamala Campaign Hires Election Meddler As Legal Counsel"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fkamala-campaign-hires-election-meddler-as-legal-counsel%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2326821&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Vice\u2062 President Kamala Harris has enlisted Marc Elias, a controversial figure known\u2063 for his role in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/u-s-government-warns-of-heightened-threat-ahead-of-midterms\/\" title=\"U.S. Government Warns of &quot;Heightened Threat&quot; Ahead of Midterms\">election-related legal challenges<\/a>, to join her presidential campaign&#8217;s \u2062legal team, particularly to prepare for potential recounts. Elias \u2063previously served \u2063as general counsel for Harris during the\u200c 2020 campaign and is \u200dbringing additional lawyers from\u2063 his firm. \u2063The team also includes notable legal \u200bfigures associated with President \u2063Biden, suggesting a robust strategy for legal battles \u200bshould electoral outcomes be contested.<\/p>\n<p>Elias is infamous for \u2063his \u2062involvement\u200d in the Russia collusion narrative, \u2064having\u2064 commissioned the Steele Dossier during the 2016 election to \u2063gather opposition research against\u2063 Donald Trump.\u200b However,\u200c investigations later \u2064revealed \u2063the dossier\u2019s claims were unfounded. He has faced scrutiny \u200bfor his legal tactics,\u200d including being sanctioned for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hunter-biden-irs-whistleblowers-arent-under-investigation-so-why-did-weiss-suggest-they-were\/\" title=\"Why Did Weiss Suggest Hunter Biden IRS Whistleblowers Were Under Investigation?\">misleading court filings<\/a>, and\u200c has been critical of election integrity measures that he \u200cperceives as detrimental to voter access.<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue that Elias&#8217;s actions threaten the integrity of\u2064 the \u200delectoral process, particularly through \u200badvocacy for loosening voting safeguards. Harris\u2019s decision to integrate him\u2064 into\u200b her\u200c campaign\u2019s legal strategy indicates\u2062 a willingness to \u2062engage in significant legal\u2064 disputes in the upcoming election.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Vice President Kamala Harris&rsquo; presidential campaign has hired notorious election meddler Marc Elias to join their legal team to focus on potential recounts. <\/p>\n<p>Elias is bringing along &ldquo;lawyers from his growing firm&rdquo; this go-around after having previously served as general counsel for Harris&rsquo; primary campaign during the 2020 election cycle, The New York Times (NYT) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/17\/us\/elections\/democrats-election-legal-challenges.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>. Other members of Harris&rsquo; legal team include Bob Bauer, &ldquo;who served as personal counsel to President Biden for years,&rdquo; Dana Remus, who served as general counsel to Biden&rsquo;s 2020 campaign, and Vanita Gupta, a former &ldquo;top Biden Justice Department official&rdquo; who will serve as an &ldquo;informal adviser,&rdquo; The Times reported.<\/p>\n<p>But if Elias&rsquo; past (and present) tells us anything, it&rsquo;s that Harris&rsquo; team is gearing up to fight tooth and nail to win this election in the courts if it can&rsquo;t win at the ballot box.<\/p>\n<h2>Russia Collusion<\/h2>\n<p>Elias is perhaps best known for helping <a href=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/politics-policy\/elections\/how-top-democrat-lawyer-caused-both-left-and-right-lose-faith-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">construct<\/a> the Russia collusion hoax, which was one of the first explicit instances of Democrat election interference targeting Donald Trump. Elias commissioned the discredited <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/12\/even-after-offering-1m-fbi-never-got-corroboration-of-russia-dossier-they-used-to-spy-on-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steele Dossier<\/a> that was funded by Hillary Clinton&rsquo;s 2016 campaign. Elias was a top lawyer for Clinton in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Fusion GPS was hired by Elias &mdash; yet <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/30\/election-watchdog-fines-clinton-campaign-for-lying-about-steele-dossier-in-finance-filings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">funded<\/a> by Clinton&rsquo;s campaign and the Democratic National Committee &mdash; to get dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele, who later disseminated uncorroborated allegations that Trump was a Russian asset to media and U.S. spy agencies. The dossier&rsquo;s primary source was Igor Danchenko, who, as The Federalist&rsquo;s Margot Cleveland <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/03\/18\/spygate-101-a-primer-on-the-russia-collusion-hoaxs-years-long-plot-to-take-down-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> in a breakdown of the Russia-collusion hoax, &ldquo;fed Steele false information about the Trump campaign, which a Clinton booster had invented and then passed on to Danchenko.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2018\/01\/18\/this-defense-of-fbis-handling-of-the-steele-dossier-is-one-of-the-weakest-yet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FBI<\/a> used this <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/12\/even-after-offering-1m-fbi-never-got-corroboration-of-russia-dossier-they-used-to-spy-on-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">uncorroborated evidence<\/a> to illegally spy on the Trump campaign in what later became known as &ldquo;Crossfire Hurricane.&rdquo; Subsequent investigations from both Special Counsels Robert Mueller and John Durham found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/03\/24\/breaking-news-barr-to-release-summary-of-mueller-report-1233771\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">no evidence<\/a> Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/storage\/durhamreport.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conspired<\/a> with Russian operatives.<\/p>\n<h2>Sanctioned for Deception<\/h2>\n<p>Elias was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/07\/08\/5th-circuit-keeps-sanctions-on-democrat-russia-hoax-lawyer-marc-elias\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sanctioned<\/a> by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 2021 after he deceptively refiled a motion that was previously rejected &ldquo;without disclosing the previous denial.&rdquo; Elias was ordered to pay &ldquo;attorneys&rsquo; fees and court costs incurred by their opponents over the &lsquo;duplicative&rsquo; motion and any related response and also to pay &lsquo;double costs,&#8217;&rdquo; as explained by Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>The sanctions were a result of Elias&rsquo; efforts to reinstate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/court-sanctions-star-democrat-election-lawyer-for-misleading-filings\/\" title=\"Court Sanctions Star Democrat Election Lawyer for \u2018Misleading\u2019 Filings\">straight-ticket voting<\/a> in Texas. Straight-ticket voting allows voters to vote for all their party&rsquo;s preferred candidates by just marking their ballot once.<\/p>\n<p>Elias &ldquo;demanded that the judges rethink the &lsquo;unprecedented&rsquo; penalties and asked for an appeals court hearing to remove the sanctions,&rdquo; as my colleague Jordan Boyd <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/01\/14\/federal-court-wont-back-down-after-sanctioning-russia-hoax-lawyer-marc-elias-for-deceiving-judges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a>. The court refused in a unanimous decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Election Integrity <\/h2>\n<p>But what makes Elias so dangerous to the future of this republic are his efforts to undermine election safeguards and create an electoral free-for-all.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/09\/pigpen-project-puts-boots-on-the-ground-to-expose-nevadas-dirty-voter-rolls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nevada<\/a> automatically sends a ballot to every active voter on their voter rolls. But the state&rsquo;s voter rolls allegedly include hundreds of &ldquo;suspect addresses&rdquo; like strip clubs, bars, parking lots, and commercial addresses, my colleague Matt Kittle <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/19\/democrat-fixer-marc-elias-firm-steps-in-to-stop-disastrous-election-system-fix\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a>, citing an investigative <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/featured\/lawsuit-nevada-officials-need-to-investigate-and-fix-commercial-addresses-on-the-voter-roll\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> from the <a href=\"https:\/\/publicinterestlegal.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Public Interest Legal Foundation<\/a>. But state law requires that a voter register where he lives, so PILF is asking &ldquo;elections officials to enforce the law.&rdquo; To do so, the foundation filed a petition in Nevada&rsquo;s second-most populous county, Washoe, to force elections officials to investigate the commercial addresses on voter rolls.<\/p>\n[[<strong>READ NEXT: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/03\/russia-hoaxer-marc-elias-firm-sues-to-let-foreign-billionaires-buy-ohio-elections\/\">Russia Hoaxer Marc Elias&rsquo; Firm Sues To Let Foreign Billionaires Buy Ohio Elections<\/a>]\n<p>But Elias&rsquo; team is having none of that, intervening in the case to argue, as Kittle put it, that &ldquo;forcing Washoe election administrators to follow the law and clean up the county&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republican-state-lawmakers-to-introduce-new-bills-to-limit-vote-by-mail-require-photo-id-to-vote-clean-dirty-voter-rolls\/\" title=\"Republican State Lawmakers to Introduce New Bills to Limit Vote-by-Mail, Require Photo ID to Vote, Clean Dirty Voter Rolls\">dirty voter rolls<\/a> will &lsquo;threaten&rsquo; voting rights.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Elias was also recently <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/15\/obama-appointed-judge-smacks-down-marc-elias-election-lawfare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lambasted<\/a> by U.S. District Court Chief Judge James D. Peterson for bringing a &ldquo;novel&rdquo; absentee ballot complaint against Wisconsin that Peterson &mdash; an Obama appointee &mdash; called &ldquo;head-scratching.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Elias and his firm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/1-2023-10-02-Liebert-v.-WEC-Complaint-FILED38.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">claimed<\/a> Wisconsin&rsquo;s requirement that a U.S. citizen witness and sign an absentee voter&rsquo;s ballot is a violation of voting and civil rights.<\/p>\n<p>But Peterson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2024-05-09-Order.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ruled<\/a> that &ldquo;the most obvious problem with plaintiffs&rsquo; interpretation is that it simply does not make any sense.&rdquo; The judge went on to explain that the state statute is &ldquo;intended to serve legitimate and important purposes, such as deterring voter fraud, undue influence, and ballot harvesting.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vice President Kamala Harris&#8217; presidential campaign has enlisted the services of Marc Elias, a well-known figure in election interference, to join their legal team with an emphasis on possible recounts. According to The New York Times (NYT), Elias is bringing additional lawyers from his expanding firm after previously acting as general counsel for Harris during her primary campaign in the 2020 election. Other notable members of Harris&#8217; legal team include Bob Bauer, who has been a personal attorney for President Biden for several years; Dana Remus, who was general counsel for Biden&#8217;s 2020 campaign; and Vanita Gupta, a former high-ranking official in the Biden Justice Department serving as an informal adviser.<\/p>\n<p>Elias\u2019 history suggests that Harris\u2019 team is preparing to vigorously contest the election through legal channels if they cannot secure victory at the polls. He is perhaps most infamous for his role in creating the Russia collusion narrative against Donald Trump, which marked one of the first clear instances of Democratic election interference aimed at him. Elias was instrumental in commissioning the discredited Steele Dossier funded by Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 campaign while serving as her top lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>Fusion GPS was hired by Elias\u2014funded by Clinton\u2019s campaign and the Democratic National Committee\u2014to gather damaging information on Trump. They employed former British spy Christopher Steele, who later spread unverified claims that Trump was a Russian asset to media outlets and U.S. intelligence agencies. The dossier&#8217;s main source was Igor Danchenko, who provided Steele with false information about Trump&#8217;s campaign that had been fabricated by a Clinton supporter.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI utilized this unverified evidence to conduct unauthorized surveillance on Trump&#8217;s campaign during what became known as &#8220;Crossfire Hurricane.&#8221; Investigations led by Special Counsels Robert Mueller and John Durham ultimately found no evidence supporting claims that Trump conspired with Russian operatives.<\/p>\n<p>In 2021, Elias faced sanctions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit after he deceptively refiled a previously rejected motion without revealing its prior denial. He was ordered to pay attorneys&#8217; fees and court costs related to this &#8220;duplicative&#8221; motion along with &#8220;double costs,&#8221; according to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>These sanctions stemmed from his attempts to reinstate straight-ticket voting in Texas\u2014a system allowing voters to select all candidates from one party with a single mark on their ballot. Despite requesting judges reconsider these penalties and seeking an appeals court hearing against them, his requests were unanimously denied.<\/p>\n<p>Elias poses significant risks regarding electoral integrity due to his efforts aimed at undermining voting safeguards and promoting lax electoral standards. For instance, Nevada automatically sends ballots to every active voter listed on its rolls; however, reports indicate these rolls may contain numerous questionable addresses such as strip clubs or parking lots\u2014contrary to state law requiring voters register where they actually reside.<\/p>\n<p>The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has petitioned officials in Washoe County\u2014the second-most populous county in Nevada\u2014to investigate these commercial addresses on voter rolls but faced opposition from Elias\u2019 team arguing that enforcing such laws would threaten voting rights.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, U.S District Court Chief Judge James D. Peterson criticized Elias recently over an unusual absentee ballot complaint filed against Wisconsin which Peterson described as \u201chead-scratching.\u201d In this case, Elias claimed Wisconsin&#8217;s requirement for a U.S citizen witness signature on absentee ballots violated civil rights; however Peterson ruled that this interpretation lacked logic since it served legitimate purposes like preventing voter fraud and undue influence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2326822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-19-at-11.50.44-AM-e1724088099398-1024x577.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[35835,18111,32438,38561,36160],"class_list":["post-2326821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-campaign-strategy","tag-election-meddling","tag-kamala-harris","tag-legal-counsel","tag-political-controversy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Screenshot-2024-08-19-at-11.50.44-AM-e1724088099398-1024x577.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2326821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2326821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2326822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2326821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2326821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2326821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}