Who’s Cleta Mitchell, Trump’s Lawyer On Georgia Call?

Gun Rights

Topline

The controversial phone call Saturday between President Donald Trump and Georgia election officials brought a new name to light: conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell, who has quietly been aiding President Donald Trump in his push to overturn the election for weeks, according to the New York Times—a notable addition to his campaign legal team because she is a partner at a major law firm, which has stated it is ‘concerned‘ by her participation in the phone call. 

Key Facts

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said at the beginning of the call, which Mitchell was included in, that although she “is not the attorney of record,” that she “has been involved” in the campaign’s legal maneuverings to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state of Georgia.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this was the first time it was publicly disclosed that Mitchell was involved in Trump’s continued efforts to reverse the November election results.

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Mitchell, a onetime Democratic member of the Oklahoma legislature, is a partner at Foley & Lardner, a Milwaukee-based law firm whose over 1,000 attorneys represent several influential corporations. 

In recent years, Mitchell has emerged as a leading lawyer for prominent Republicans and conservative groups such as the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the American Legislative Exchange Council and the National Rifle Association, and according to the Times has won a reputation as a firebrand for her criticism of coronavirus lockdown measures and the IRS’ treatment of Tea Party-associated nonprofits during the Obama administration.

Foley’s director of communication issued a statement Monday that the firm was “concerned” about Mitchell’s participation in the Jan. 2 conference call and was “working to understand her involvement more thoroughly.”

The firm does not represent “any parties seeking to contest the results of the presidential election,” the statement said.

Key Background:

Mitchell was a registered Democrat when she was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in her 20s and unsuccessfully ran for lieutenant governor of Oklahoma in 1986. Ten years later, she moved to Washington, D.C., after changing her party affiliation. According to the Times, Mitchell established herself as one of the GOP’s leading election and nonprofit lawyers. According to the Daily Beast, prior to the release of the much-publicized phone call, Mitchell had “conducted her legal work for Trump and his team almost entirely out of the public eye, instead opting to appear sporadically on Trump-friendly media,” but her involvement with the campaign dates back “roughly two months.” On a podcast, she described herself as a “volunteer” with the Trump campaign. Mitchell previously served on the board of the NRA and recently represented the nonprofit foundation of Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who’s been charged by federal prosecutors with defrauding donors.

Surprising Fact:

Mitchell’s first husband, Duane Draper, came out as a gay man after they were divorced. He became director of the Massachusetts AIDS policy office and died in 1991. Mitchell’s second husband, Dale Mitchell, was convicted of bank fraud in 1992. Mitchell later claimed the conviction was due to “overreaching government regulation.”

Critical Quote: 

In early November, following criticism after she made an appearance on Fox News supporting Trump’s false election claims, Mitchell tweeted, “Forget that pesky Constitution… happy to be considered a nut job because I believe in the rule of law.”

Further Reading:

Cleta Mitchell, a key figure in president’s phone call, was an early backer of Trump’s election fraud claims (WaPo)

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