Texas Bar should investigate, Discipline Ted Cruz: Group

Senator Ted Cruz (via ABC News Screengrab)

An advocacy group targeting attorneys who helped negotiate the so-called “big lie” about the 2020 presidential election has asked the Texas Bar Association to conduct investigations and disciplinary action donald trump Ally Sen. ted cruz (R-Tex.).

The 65 Project — a group of attorneys, retired judges, legal experts and bipartisan political activists that launched earlier this year — filed an ethics complaint against Cruz on Wednesday, asking the Texas Bar Association to indict the GOP senator for violating to examine “numerous” professional rules to guide and discipline him accordingly.

The group’s name is a direct reference to the 65 lawsuits filed after the election aimed at reversal Joe Bidento win. The complaint against Cruz comes just over two months after the group’s first volley in March, when 10 attorneys received similar complaints.

The 65 Project says that by representing Trump in a lawsuit aimed at overturning the Pennsylvania election results, Cruz created “an attorney-client relationship” with Trump and is therefore subject to disciplinary action by the Texas State Bar . The group’s attorneys’ lawsuit also cites Cruz’s pledge to act against Texas’ efforts to overturn election results in four other states.

According to the group, Cruz has violated several state professional rules, including those that prohibit attorneys from making or defending frivolous claims, assisting or counseling a client in involvement in crime or fraud, and encouraging other attorneys to violate the professional rules to violate.

Electoral process “lacked any reasonable legal or factual basis.”

By joining the lawsuit over the Pennsylvania results, Kelly vs Pennsylvania, the complaint states, Cruz knew he was joining a frivolous case. This case had incorporated allegations made in another case contesting the election, Texas vs Pennsylvania.

“Mr. Cruz admitted to reading the files in the Kelly before you agree to represent the plaintiffs,” the complaint said, adding later, “As documented in the detailed complaint filed with your office against the Attorney General [Ken] Paxtonthe claims of Texas and Mr. Trump in the Texas vs Pennsylvania the litigation lacked any reasonable legal or factual basis.”

The complaint said Cruz took the frivolous lawsuit all the way to the nation’s highest court.

“He called him [Supreme] Court’ to hear the matter and assisted the effort, both lending the matter its legal license and stepping up allegations on social media and television appearances,” the complaint reads, adding that the Supreme Court ruled in both cases acknowledging the frivolity of the claims, it “repeatedly denied the applications.”

According to The 65 Project, there is “uncertainty about the end date” of Cruz’s representation of Trump. Trump is a lawyer, according to a Jan. 6 transcript from the House inquiry John Eastman, The legal rationale behind the so-called “coup memos,” allegedly a way to keep the former president in office, asserted attorney-client privilege over subpoenaed documents containing the word “Cruz.”

Attorney-client privilege “would not exist if Mr. Cruz were not a member of Mr. Trump’s legal team,” according to the ethics complaint.

It’s worth noting that Eastman is currently under investigation by the California Bar Association for his role in the “Big Lie” litigation, and The 65 Project’s ethics complaint says that’s another reason to investigate Cruz: the Texas rules ban barred attorneys from encouraging other attorneys to violate professional rules, but Cruz appears to have done so, as the California rules Eastman allegedly broke are “nearly identical” to those Cruz allegedly broke in Texas has violated.

The complaint also alleges that Cruz, in connection with representing a client, violated the rule that a Texas attorney “shall not knowingly make a false statement to any third party as to a material fact or law.”

However, Cruz did just that, the complaint states, when he made statements “corroborating the allegations contained in Texas’ filing with the United States Supreme Court” and by making the “false allegation.” reiterated that the lawsuit was ‘purely a question of law’, “” when the defendants actually disputed many of the facts alleged by the plaintiffs.

“Up to and including sanctions and professional ban”

The complaint also directly links Cruz to the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol and details Cruz’s actions in the Senate chambers as the increasingly violent crowd of Trump supporters approached the building.

“As the rioters proceeded to the Capitol, Mr. Cruz fulfilled his promise to object to the confirmation of Arizona’s electoral votes,” the complaint reads. “The House and Senate then met separately to consider the objection. Mr Cruz spoke to his colleagues and urged them to postpone the electoral vote count for a “10-day emergency review”. Just as Mr. Cruz had finished pushing for the delay Mr. Trump and Mr. Eastman were seeking, insurgents broke through security, vandalized the building, attacked police officers and attempted to hunt down members of Congress and Mr. Pence.”

An insult to injury, the complaint said, was the fact that Cruz appeared to be performing a cynical ploy for campaign money when the Capitol was attacked.

“As riots attacked the US Capitol and his colleagues went into hiding, Mr. Cruz sent a message for donations,” the complaint reads. This message: “I am leading the fight to turn voters out of key states unless there is an emergency review of the election results. will you stand by me?”

The 65 Project called Cruz’s actions “outrageous” and says he must be held accountable.

“It’s egregious enough that Cruz used his Senate seat and Twitter account to support Trump’s lies, but he went beyond that by adding the value of his law license to the malicious effort,” he said Michael Theter, executive director of The 65 Project, in a press release. “Cruz broke numerous rules while representing Trump, which is why we are filing this complaint and asking the State Bar of Texas to investigate and impose appropriate sanctions.”

The complaint does not specify what appropriate discipline would be, but The 65 Project says the consequences should be significant.

“We would support any discipline they see fit, but agree that the seriousness of this issue and the obviousness of the behavior would justify discipline, up to and including sanctions and an occupational ban.” Eddie Valea spokesman for the group, told Law&Crime.

Unsurprisingly, Cruz signaled that he didn’t take the allegations seriously.

“The 65 Project is a far-left, dark-money libel machine run by a who’s who of shameless Democratic hackers,” a spokesman for Cruz said in a statement emailed to Law&Crime. “You are not a credible organization and your complaint will not be worth the paper it is printed on.”

Complaint signatories include William Whitehursta past president of the State Bar of Texas, and John Delaneya past chairman of State Bar Grievance Committee 8A.

The 65 Project is reportedly targeting 111 attorneys in 26 states involved in the 65 failed lawsuits over the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Read the ethics complaint below:

[Image via screengrab/ABC News.]

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