National group files complaint against Derek Schmidt over support of 2020 election lawsuit
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A national group said it filed a complaint Wednesday against Attorney General Derek Schmidt, arguing he should be sanctioned for signing onto a 2020 lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election.
The complaint is the latest in what Schmidt's office said are a series of objections filed with Kansas Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, the office housed within the Kansas Judicial System that handles attorney discipline, in 2021.
"All were dismissed, and we expect this election-year retread will be, too," John Milburn, a spokesperson for Schmidt, said in an email.
The most recent complaint was lodged by the group The 65 Project, which describes itself as "a bipartisan, nonprofit effort to protect democracy," though it appears to almost exclusively target conservative elected officials and attorneys.
The group filed complaints Wednesday against 15 current or former attorneys general who filed a brief in support the 2020 lawsuit, launched by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, attempting to invalidate election results in four swing states that supported President Joe Biden and instead swing their support to Trump.
The suit attempted to stop Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin from certifying their election results, arguing those states changed election law via non-legislative means. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case a week later, saying Texas did not have standing to challenge the results in another state.
Schmidt has defended the decision to sign onto the suit but also acknowledged the high court's decision not to take up the case, saying at the time that “it is time to put this election behind us."
Schmidt is currently running as the Republican nominee for governor, challenging incumbent Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly.
Complaint says signing onto Texas lawsuit violated rules barring frivolous, dishonest conduct
In the complaint, Michael Teter, the 65 Project's managing director, argued Schmidt violated four rules of the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct, saying the Texas lawsuit was frivolous, burdened other parties, was dishonest and that Schmidt signing the brief amounted to helping other attorneys violate rules of professional conduct.
The text of the complaints largely mirrors those filed against the other Republican attorneys general.
"Mr. Schmidt chose to offer his professional license and public trust to Mr. Trump’s arsenal during the latter’s assault on our democracy," Teter wrote. "He cannot be shielded from the consequences of that decision simply because he holds high public office."
A letter from Kate Baird, a deputy disciplinary administrator for the ODA, responding to a 2021 complaint rejected many of the claims made by Teter.
Baird said their analysis centered on claims that Schmidt's conduct supported a "frivolous" lawsuit but ultimately dismissed the idea.
Multiple U.S. Supreme Court justices dissented from the high court's decision not to hear the case, adding weight to the effort, and "this office should not substitute our judgement for that of the Attorney General," Baird wrote.
"Even though the case did not result in substantive success, this office cannot conclude that the attorney's decision to join other jurisdictions in submitting a brief asserting a claim that he perceived as implicating a Kansas state interest was baseless or frivolous," she said.
The 65 Project filing also criticizes Schmidt's involvement with the Republican Attorney Generals Association and its political arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, which produced robocalls encouraging people to march to the U.S. Capitol the day before the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Schmidt has distanced himself from the robocalls, with a spokesperson saying at the time that he resigned from the group's board in August 2020 and had no engagement with the group since.
More:Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt distances himself from robocalls encouraging rally attendance
A staffer for the ODA said the agency could not confirm whether a complaint had been lodged, only if an attorney has been disciplined or a hearing has been scheduled in the matter. Schmidt's law license is currently active and in good standing.
The law licenses of attorneys more actively involved in the effort to challenge the 2020 election have been implicated in other states, though this has generally been initiated by state bar associations themselves, rather than as a response to outside complaints.
The State Bar of California announced in March it is reviewing the law license of John Eastman, a Trump attorney, and Rudy Giuliani has been suspended from practicing law in both New York and Washington D.C.
And a disciplinary committee for the State Bar of Texas filed a misconduct lawsuit against Paxton in May, arguing he made "dishonest" representations about evidence of election fraud in 2020 and should be sanctioned.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Group files complaint against Derek Schmidt over 2020 election lawsuit
