WASHINGTON – The State Bar of Texas has dismissed a complaint aimed at stripping Sen. Ted Cruz’s law license over his role in former President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn his 2020 defeat, without addressing the substance of allegations that he had aided an “anti-democratic” plot.
Cruz said the dismissal amounted to a finding that the allegation was “baseless,” though the bar found only that it had no jurisdiction because Cruz, in trying to help Trump, had not acted in his capacity as a lawyer.
The 65 Project, a watchdog group launched last spring to deter abuse of the legal system to overturn fair elections, filed the complaint in May demanding Cruz be disbarred.
Cruz had offered to represent Trump before the Supreme Court if the justices agreed to hear oral arguments on the challenge, which they did not.
The two-term senator, Harvard law graduate and former Supreme Court clerk also led an effort to round up Senate votes to reject state-certified electors when Congress met on Jan. 6, 2021 to finalized the results.
Letters to Cruz and the 65 Project, released Thursday by Cruz’s office and dated June 13, show the Texas bar dismissed the complaint but sidestepped allegations that he’d promoted falsehoods and sought to undermine American democracy.
“In determining whether a lawyer’s conduct comes within the scope of the disciplinary rules, we consider the conduct in relation to that lawyer’s professional obligations, i.e. in the discharge of any responsibilities owed to a client, a court, or the legal profession,” the bar’s Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel wrote to the 65 Project. “After examining your grievance, we have concluded that the conduct described did not occur within the course of the lawyer’s law practice or otherwise involve any professional obligations.”
The letter referred the group to the Senate ethics committee if it wanted to pursue misconduct allegations against the senator.
“The State Bar dismissed this frivolous complaint on June 13,” Cruz spokesman Darin Miller said in a statement Thursday.
Quoting the June 13 letter to the senator, he added, “As the Bar concluded, ‘This office has examined the Grievance and determined that the information alleged does not demonstrate Professional Misconduct or a Disability. Pursuant to the Texas Rules of Disciplinary Procedure, this matter has therefore been classified as an Inquiry and has been dismissed.’”
On Wednesday, the 65 Project called for updated rules to forbid lawyers – including those in elected office – from lying about elections even when they are not acting in the capacity of a lawyer.
The group’s managing director Michael Teter said the dismissal bolsters the case for such reforms.
“Senator Cruz is avoiding professional discipline because of the gap that allows a lawyer to engage in what would otherwise be misconduct simply because they are not representing a client. We, obviously, disagree with the Office’s conclusion that Senator Cruz was not acting within the scope of professional duties to a client since he agreed to represent then-President Trump and Pennsylvania Republicans,” he said.
On Wednesday, Teter had said that to his knowledge, the grievance filed against Cruz was still pending with the Texas bar.
“He either lied to you or failed to keep up with the disposition of one of the many frivolous and partisan complaints he has filed,” Miller said.
Teter, shown copies of the letters provided by the senator’s office, reiterated that he had not received copies or any notification about the dismissal.
Grievances filed against Texas lawyers are not made public unless the lawyer involved waives confidentiality or is convicted of a serious crime. Both letters are marked “confidential.”
The Texas bar says it generally tells accusers and targets within 30 days if a complaint was dismissed or deemed to have enough merit to become a formal inquiry.
The 65 Project has sought disciplinary action against 55 lawyers, including a number of state attorneys general and members of Trump’s inner circle. Teter said that to his knowledge, state bar associations are pursuing at least a dozen of the complaints, and the rest are still pending.
Well over half the Republicans in the U.S. House, including most of the Texans, voted to reject state-certified electors during the tumultuous Jan. 6 session.
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