The Fulton County District Attorney’s office claims six defense attorneys involved in the racketeering case against former President Donald Trump and 18 others have conflicts of interest because some of their former clients may be called as witnesses for the prosecution.
In a notice filed with the court Wednesday, Fulton prosecutors wrote that defense attorneys Chris Anulewicz, Amanda Clark Palmer, Scott Grubman, Harry MacDougald, Bruce Morris and Don Samuel face a “significant risk” of violating the State Bar of Georgia’s professional standards if they continue representing defendants in the case. The attorneys could be in position to crossexamine their prior clients if allowed to continue, the DA’s office said.
Those former clients who could be called as witnesses include Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, as well as unnamed state lawmakers and members of the State Election Board, among others.
Some of them were called as witnesses to testify before the special purpose grand jury that spent eight months investigating the alleged conspiracy. Others were involved in separate lawsuits surrounding the contested results in the 2020 presidential election.
The filing asked Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee to look into the potential conflicts and take “appropriate remedial measures” to protect the rights of witnesses and defendants in the case.
Should McAfee side with prosecutors, it could mean the attorneys — who are counted among the most prominent and battle tested criminal defense lawyers in Atlanta — could no longer take part in the Trump case.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to the attorneys cited in the filing for a response.
In a succinct email, Morris replied, “There is no conflict.”
Anulewicz also said he has no conflict of interest in the case “and we will be filing a response in due course.”
Grubman on Wednesday acknowledged that he “briefly” represented Raffensperger and his wife, Patricia, but said he had already obtained signed waivers from them and his current client, Kenneth Chesebro, dismissing any claim of conflict of interest.” Both Raffenspergers could be state witnesses.
Other attorneys cited in the notice did not immediately respond.
Palmer, Morris and Samuel are all attorneys for Ray Smith III, an Atlanta lawyer who advised a group of Republican electors who signed documents in December 2020 stating falsely that Trump won the election.
The filing claims Samuel represented the lieutenant governor “and other members of the Georgia General Assembly” before the special purpose grand jury. Samuel said he represented the General Assembly as an institution and not individual legislators during the investigation, but he said he could not comment on the state’s motion.
Morris and Palmer represented Atlanta-based tech firm SullivanStrickler before the special purpose grand jury, prosecutors wrote. SullivanStrickeler sent its workers to Coffee County with Trump attorney Sidney Powell to copy confidential election files. Palmer also represented Duncan when the former lieutenant governor testified before the investigative panel, according to the filing.
MacDougald represents former U.S. Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark who drafted a letter expressing “significant concerns” about the outcome of the vote in Georgia and other states and urged Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special session of the General Assembly to invalidate the results. The letter was never sent after top Justice officials threatened to resign in protest.
Prosecutors wrote that MacDougald was co-counsel with Atlanta attorney Lin Wood in a lawsuit attacking Georgia’s use of Dominion voting machines in the election, and stated that Wood and the plaintiffs in that lawsuit would be state witnesses. In addition, the filing states that MacDougald was Wood’s attorney in another lawsuit filed against Raffensperger.
Wood told the AJC that he expects to receive a subpoena to testify in the case, but he said MacDougald was never his attorney.
“I’m not an expert on conflicts of interest, but Harry MacDougal has never represented me,” he said.
The filing included Wood’s lawsuit seeking a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court listing MacDougald as co-counsel.
Anulewicz represents Alpharetta attorney Bob Cheeley, who took part in a controversial hearing with state lawmakers. In it, Cheeley presented video clips showing Fulton County election workers handling ballots in State Farm Arena the night of the 2020 presidential election and claimed they were double- and triple-counting votes.
Prosecutors cited Anulewicz’s work defending Raffensperger in a lawsuit brought by Trump seeking to decertify the 2020 election results in Georgia. The filing also said Anulewicz may be called as a witness himself regarding the recorded phone call Trump made to Raffensperger. Anulewicz wasn’t on that call, but in a footnote, prosecutors noted that the Trump campaign had said the call was a “settlement negotiation” of the lawsuit and that Anulewicz could testify that there was no settlement.
Grubman represents Chesebro, a Trump campaign attorney who helped coordinate the slate of Trump electors. In a filing late Wednesday, Grubman noted that the DA knew for more than a year that about his representation of the Raffenspergers.
”Given the length of time the District Attorney has had this information, ... 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,” he wrote.
Staff reporter Bill Rankin contributed to this report.
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