Ohio's new solicitor general referenced in press secretary's Jan. 6 deposition

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's pick for solicitor general appeared in former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's deposition before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Elliot Gaiser, currently an attorney with Jones Day, will start the job representing Ohio before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal appeals court and Ohio Supreme Court on Nov. 20, according to a Wednesday release from Yost's office.

In her deposition, McEnany described Gaiser, then an attorney with Boyden Gray & Associates, as a lawyer she really trusted on matters of election security.

Shortly before Jan. 6, an attorney advising Trump named John Eastman insisted that Vice President Mike Pence had the power to block certification of the 2020 presidential election, which Biden won, and overturn the results. McEnany overheard a conversation to that effect on Jan. 5 and texted Gaiser for guidance.

"I texted the person who I trusted most as it came to constitutional law, Elliot Gaiser, a question about whether the Vice President had a pro forma role or a substantive role. And I think I sent that text close to 10:00 p.m. on the night of January 5th," McEnany said, according to the transcript.

McEnany said in the interview: "I believe he said substantive in that January 5th text."

Gaiser is mentioned briefly by others interviewed by the Jan. 6 committee. They described him as someone who worked on pre-election litigation for the Trump campaign. Michael Wolff's book "Landslide" describes Gaiser as "one of the youngest people on the president’s legal team."

When asked if this raised any concerns for Yost, spokeswoman Bethany McCorkle replied: "Elliot is a nationally respected constitutional law expert. He is Ohio's next solicitor general because of his knowledge and expertise in the law.”

In December 2020, Yost urged the U.S. Supreme Court to accept the lawsuit challenging election results in swing states that Trump lost to resolve legal issues going forward, not to overturn the election, the Associated Press reported. He had no concerns about the election results in Ohio, which Trump won by 8 percentage points.

On the day of the Capitol attack, Yost tweeted "I condemn the storming of the Capitol. This is not protest, but lawlessness. My prayers are with the law enforcement officers trying to restore order."

A dark money group linked to the Republican Attorneys General Association had encouraged people to march to the U.S. Capitol to "stop the steal." Yost shared in January 2021 that he was "shocked and angered by this unauthorized act by a rogue staffer."

Yost's news release did not mention Gaiser's work with Trump. It did cite Gaiser's experience as a law clerk for Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., at the U.S. Supreme Court; for Judge Neomi Rao on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and for Judge Edith H. Jones on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Gaiser, an Ohio native, earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School in 2016 and his bachelor’s degree from Hillsdale College in Michigan in 2012.

“I am eager to stand up for the safety, prosperity and freedom of all Ohioans, consistent with our constitutional principles of federalism and the rule of law,” Gaiser said in the release.

Gaiser replaces former solicitor general Ben Flowers, who now works at Cincinnati-based Ashbrook Byrne Kresge.

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: New Ohio solicitor general appears in press secretary's Jan. 6 interview