WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
  • Democracy Restored identified 181 bar complaints and related filings targeting 122 lawyers, five firms, and 44 other people.
  • The filings spanned 34 jurisdictions in 26 states between 2016 and 2026, with 92 tied to the 2020 election.
  • The report alleges The 65 Project spearheaded a coordinated network using complaints, publicity, and renewed pressure against conservative attorneys.
  • Democracy Restored said 22 complaints were filed in 2026, while dozens of additional potential targets were reportedly being examined.

Democracy Restored released a report on September 30, 2026, alleging that leftist organizations built a secret, well financed, and coordinated national campaign targeting conservative attorneys. The group said the operation uses lawfare and bar complaints to punish Republican lawyers and discourage others from representing conservative clients.

The investigation covers 181 bar complaints and related filings, presenting them as pieces of a broader political pressure campaign. Democracy Restored said the filings reveal an organized effort rather than a collection of isolated disciplinary disputes.

The report is titled “‘Shame Them and Make Them Toxic’: The Left’s Campaign to Attack Its Political Opponents Using Lawfare and Barfare.” It examines the organizations, political operatives, funding sources, and publicity strategies behind what Democracy Restored calls the “Lawfare Consortium.”

Democracy Restored Senior Counsel Karin Sweigart presented the findings Wednesday at “BARFARE: Stopping Bar Discipline as Political Warfare.” The presentation focused attention on the groups and individuals allegedly driving the campaign.

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According to Democracy Restored, the report connects hundreds of data points involving the consortium’s leading figures, targets, funding sources, publicity tactics, and geographic strategy. The resulting picture is one of complaints paired with coordinated public pressure.

The report says The 65 Project spearheaded the network, which includes activist organizations aligned with Democrats. It also identifies Hillary Clinton insider and Media Matters founder David Brock and former Obama “Ethics Czar” Norm Eisen among the consortium’s prominent figures.

Democracy Restored pointed to Brock’s own description of the objective behind the grievances. The goal was not merely to submit complaints against targeted attorneys, but to “shame them and make them toxic” in their communities and firms.

Several cases connected to the broader campaign have already received national attention. Democracy Restored cited John Eastman, who was disbarred; Cleta Mitchell, who resigned from her law firm; Rudolph Giuliani, who was disbarred; Kenneth Chesebro, who was disbarred; and Jenna Ellis, who was suspended from the bar.

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The report looks beyond those prominent cases and examines what Democracy Restored describes as the machinery operating behind the headlines. Its findings draw from disciplinary records, court documents, nonprofit disclosures, and publications released by the organizations involved.

According to the report, the campaign repeatedly follows the same basic sequence. Groups file complaints, publicize accusations, amplify resulting coverage, and then use later developments to renew pressure against the attorneys and their employers.

Between 2016 and 2026, Democracy Restored counted 181 bar complaints and related filings across 34 jurisdictions in 26 states. Those filings targeted 122 lawyers, five firms, and 44 people who are not lawyers.

Of the 181 complaints and related filings identified during that period, 92 were tied to the 2020 election. That concentration made the election and its aftermath a major component of the activity examined by investigators.

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Democracy Restored traced the consortium’s activities to a 2017 attack against Kris Kobach, President Trump’s vice chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The organization described that action as a “proof of concept” that preceded the fallout surrounding the 2020 election and later complaints.

The consortium has filed 22 complaints so far in 2026, according to Democracy Restored. Pam Bondi, Boris Epshteyn, Todd Blanche, Jeanine Pirro, and others from the current administration have been targeted, while dozens of additional potential targets are reportedly being examined.

“Our report shows how the Left’s weaponization of the legal system became a sustained national campaign,” said Houston Keene, director of Democracy Restored.

“Every lawyer they target sends a warning to the next attorney considering representing a Republican client, arguing a conservative case or serving in the Trump administration: Your career could be in the crosshairs.”

“Attorneys should not be targeted for taking on clients, issues, or employment because political ideologues disagree with them, and Americans should be free to choose their legal representation without the same threat looming over them.”

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