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The America First Legal foundation filed a Bar complaint in Utah on Monday against Michael Teter, director of The 65 Project, a left-wing “lawfare” group that has been threatening potential lawyers for Donald Trump with sanctions.

As Breitbart News has reported, the 65 Project is a “dark money” organization that bullied Trump’s lawyers in 2020 and which is “now warning potential Trump attorneys that they could be disbarred for working for him.” The 65 Project is running ads on social media telling attorneys they could lose their “law license[s]” by working for Trump.

Breitbart News noted:

As Breitbart News reported in 2022, Project 65 was launched with help from David Brock, the Hillary Clinton ally behind such groups as Media Matters. It does not disclose its donors, but has “ties to Democratic Party heavyweights,” Axios reported.

As Breitbart News later reported, Project 65’s “ongoing efforts to prosecute, disbar, and smear attorneys who served as election lawyers for President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign could leave Republicans short of legal talent for the election fight in November 2024.” Some 100 attorneys have reportedly been targeted.

Now, Project 65 is threatening attorneys who simply might be considering working for Trump, suggesting in the ad that merely representing him could “endanger” their “standing with the bar.”

The America First complaint seizes on evidence that then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), a member of the January 6 Committee, communicated with anti-Trump witness Cassidy Hutchinson without her attorney, Stefan Passantino, present. Media outlets reported — falsely — at the time that Passantino had coached Hutchinson to lie to the panel. Passantino is suing MSNBC analyst Andrew Weissman for defamation for repeating that claim nearly a year later.

The 65 Project filed a bar complaint against Passantino in early 2023, signed by Teter, who filed “nearly 100 ethics complaints against lawyers aligned with President Trump, signing them all himself,” America First Legal notes.

But Teter had no personal knowledge of the accusations against Passantino, “which have now been proven false by the work of the Committee on House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight,” America First Legal adds.

In a statement, the foundation goes on to allege that Teter and the 65 Project are violating fundamental constitutional rights to legal representation by seeking to intimidate future attorneys for Trump (original emphasis):

Last month, The 65 Project began running advertisements online and in legal journals in swing states with the message: “Don’t lose your law license because of Trump.” These ads appear to seek to intimidate lawyers who might be inclined to represent President Trump in the future from doing so.

Mr. Teter’s numerous misconduct complaints appear to be based on a simple premise: attorneys should not represent President Trump or anyone associated with him, and President Trump and his associates are not entitled to legal representation or zealous advocacy.

Mr. Passantino and the other attorneys attacked by Mr. Teter and other, similarly motivated groups, sought to represent their clients in the face of widespread condemnation both inside and outside of the legal profession. They embody the highest ideal of the legal profession: that, in our system, everyone is entitled to legal representation.

Mr. Teter’s boilerplate complaints appear to exhibit a fundamental lack of professionalism toward his fellow lawyers and an extreme disdain for President Trump and his associates. His underlying message is clear: Some people are not worthy of representation, and those who dare to represent them will be punished.

It appears that Mr. Teter sought misconduct sanctions against Mr. Passantino, and many others, for an improper purpose. He appears to have abused the grievance process to treat these attorneys uniformly, as a class, with the intention of creating a “culture of deterrence” and impacting an immeasurable number of attorneys who might represent President Trump in the future.

The America First Legal foundation has also filed a Bar complaint against Cheney for her role in the controversy.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.