Marc Elias – a top Democrat election lawyer – was sanction in Texas for violating ethics rules in a suit on behalf of Democrats’ Senate and congressional campaign committees.
Elias and other lawyers from the firm Perkins Coie were ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans to pay legal fees and “double costs” to Texas as a result of the August suit.
Elias filed a “so-called motion to supplement the record in a case accusing Texas of trying to illegally scrap straight-ticket voting during the pandemic, even though an identical motion had already been denied earlier in the case.”
The technical violation “unreasonably and vexatiously” complicated the litigation by creating more work for the court, according to the ruling.
“This inexplicable failure to disclose the earlier denial of their motion violated their duty of candor to the court. If appellees had any confusion about the application of the order, they could have and should have disclosed the previously denied motion in their new motion,” the court continued.
