The 65 Project

Concerns over the methods of The 65 Project have been raised since at least March 2022.^[13] Bruce Green, the director of Fordham Law School's Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics, emphasized that the 65 Project's complaints were "designed to embarrass" lawyers, discouraging political work "even if they're playing by the rules."^[13] CNN noted that the investigations sought by the 65 Project "unfold in secret" until claims are found meritorious in most states, but that, as Green raised concerns about, the 65 Projects "heavily publicized allegations" would harm lawyers' reputations before claims were reviewed.^[13] Complaints filed by The 65 Project have been dismissed since the group's first public announcements, beginning with Georgia attorney Brad Carver.^[4] However, the group had continued publishing adversarial media targeting lawyers' professional communities, planning advertising campaigns to run in law journals as recently as late fall 2024.^[14]

Alan Dershowitz, whose sanctions for "frivolous" election litigation^[15] followed complaints by Marc Elias's firm,^[16] compared the results of its work as similar to the "ridicule" faced by suspected communists during McCarthyism^[17] and Texas Congressman Lance Gooden described the 65 Project as "a far-left activist group of lawyers actively engaging in partisan tactics."^[18] The 65 Project describes itself as "bipartisan," and "defending democracy and the rule of law."^[19] The 65 Project elicited criticism from ethics complaint respondent Cleta Mitchell for not also pursuing attorney Marc Elias^[2] who had challenged the Iowa election results of Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks previously.^[20]

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