Democratic lawyer Marc Elias likes to style himself as a defender of democracy. But after the New York Times published a story documenting his use of “dark money” to influence the 2020 elections, Elias tweeted a call to make it easier for people to sue the New York Times.
After being roundly condemned, Elias has since deleted the tweet.
“If the media is not going to be pro-democracy, then it probably is time for the courts to revisit New York Times vs Sullivan (as conservative lawyers suggest),” Elias’s now-deleted tweet read. “The case was premised on a role in democracy that the mainstream press seems increasingly disinterested in playing.”
The role Elias sees the press playing, apparently, is as an unquestioning cheerleader for partisan hacks like Elias.
As the Washington Examiner’s Jerry Dunleavy has detailed, Elias was the driving force behind the false Steele dossier used by the FBI to spy on former President Donald Trump’s campaign. One of the authors of the New York Times story linked above, Kenneth Vogel, said Elias lied to him about how the Steele dossier was funded.
Federal courts have also reported problems with Elias’s integrity. He was recently sanctioned by a federal court for violating his ethical “duty of candor” by filing “redundant and misleading” motions.
Elias is one of the least ethical people in Washington, D.C. That Democrats are letting him lead the fight against supposed “voter suppression” speaks volumes about the integrity of their claims.
