Georgia’s GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger Waives Attorney Conflicts for Pro-Trump Lawyer: Court Doc

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has disavowed any conflicts of interest from his former attorney, who is now representing pro-Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro in the sprawling election-racketeering case, a new court filing indicates.

On Thursday, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis told a judge that six attorneys representing former President Donald Trump's associates have possible conflicts of interest that could compromise their client's rights at trial.

Those attorneys are Scott Grubman, who represents Kenneth Chesebro; Harry W. MacDougald, who represents Jeffrey Clark; Christopher Anulewicz, who represents Robert Cheeley; Bruce H. Morris, Donald Franklin Samuel, and Amanda Clark Palmer, who represent Ray Smith.

At least two of those attorneys — Chesebro and Anulewicz — previously represented Raffensperger, the Georgia Republican whom Trump tried to pressure to "find 11,780 votes" in a phone call seeking to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory. Trump appeared to threaten Raffensperger with criminal liability for failing to do his bidding, making Raffensperger a key figure in the former president's alleged racketeering scheme in Georgia.

Recruiting Raffensperger as a central witness in her case, DA Willis warned Judge Scott McAfee of the possibility that the Georgia secretary of state may be cross-examined by his former lawyers.

Hours later on Thursday evening, Grubman filed his formal rejoinder in Fulton County Superior Court, accusing the DA's office of gamesmanship and revealing that Raffensperger has waived any conflict.

"After indicting multiple lawyers (undersigned’s client, Ken Chesebro, included) for providing legal advice to a client, the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office now seeks to raise potential conflicts for approximately half of the defense lawyers who were hired to defend their clients’ rights in this case," Grubman pointedly wrote in a three-page response.

Grubman's alleged conflict relates to his former representation of the Georgia secretary of state and wife Tricia Raffensperger, whom Grubman represented during the DA's special grand jury investigation that preceded the RICO indictment.

Acknowledging that he did represent the Raffenspergers "in their personal capacities," Grubman noted that the DA has known that fact "for longer than a year."

"Given the length of time the District Attorney has had this information (based on the text messages they published, since at least July 2022), it certainly raises the distinct possibility that the State improperly held on to this information until just under 30 days before trial in order to gain some sort of tactical advantage," Grubman added in a footnote.

Denying any conflicts of interest, Grubman added that he has "signed, written waivers" from the Raffenspergers and Chesebro that he offered to submit privately to the court.

"Mr. Grubman would have informed the District Attorney’s Office of such informed consent had they reached out before filing their Notice. The State did not extend that typical professional courtesy," he added.

Prosecutors routinely flag possible conflicts of interest to prevent later attacks on any convictions on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel.

For example, Special Counsel Jack Smith raised concerns about conflicts of interest for the attorneys representing Trump's co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira in the former president's classified documents case in Florida. The Trump campaign's main fundraising entity Save America underwrote the legal fees of Nauta's attorney Stanley Woodward, who also represents several accused Jan. 6 rioters and witnesses in the Mar-a-Lago case.