ON YOUR OWN

Law Firm Porter Wright Abandons Trump Campaign’s Legal Challenge in Pennsylvania

One of the firm’s partners spoke at a Trump campaign news conference last week, purporting to be a volunteer poll watcher who had been obstructed.

Earlier this week, it was reported that lawyers at a top white-shoe law firm representing President Donald Trump in his legal war on the 2020 election were furious that their bosses were helping to enable his efforts to undermine American democracy. That same firm, Porter Wright, has now abandoned Trump’s legal challenge in Pennsylvania. According to The New York Times, the law firm said in a federal court filing: “Plaintiffs and Porter Wright have reached a mutual agreement that plaintiffs will be best served if Porter Wright withdraws.” The firm didn’t explain its reasoning—however, according to the Times, one of the firm’s partners spoke at a Trump campaign news conference last week, purporting to be a volunteer poll watcher who had been obstructed. Neither he nor the Trump campaign said that he was also a lawyer at the firm.

The Times also reported that associates voiced their dismay at two recent meetings that the firm would be representing the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania, a decisive state in Joe Biden’s victory last week where the president has baselessly alleged widespread voter fraud. Another of the Trump campaign’s legal firms withdrew from the case in Arizona earlier in the week.