Cleta Mitchell, the conservative lawyer who took part in President Trump’s damning phone call last weekend pressuring Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to overturn the election results, resigned as a partner in the law firm Foley & Lardner on Tuesday.
In a statement shared with TPM on Tuesday, the law firm confirmed that Mitchell has “informed firm management of her decision to resign from Foley & Lardner effective immediately.”
Foley & Lardner said that Mitchell concluded that her departure was “in the firm’s best interests” in addition to “her own personal best interests” as the law firm thanked her for “her contributions to the firm and wish her well.”
Mitchell’s resignation comes a day after the law firm said that it was “concerned” about the conservative lawyer’s involvement in the now-infamous call between Trump and Raffensperger. The firm emphasized its policy “not to take on any representation of any party in connection with matters related to the presidential election results” after Mitchell was revealed to have participated in the call.
“Our policy did allow our attorneys to participate in observing election recounts and similar actions on a voluntary basis in their individual capacity as private citizens so long as they did not act as legal advisers,” the firm said in a statement on Monday. “We are aware of, and are concerned by, Ms. Mitchell’s participation in the January 2 conference call and are working to understand her involvement more thoroughly.”
During the unhinged call when Trump tried to bully Raffensperger by demanding that the battleground state’s top elections official “find” enough votes to overturn his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, which was first reported by the Washington Post on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows introduced Mitchell as one of the two attorneys who “represent the President.”
Mitchell is heard throughout the irate call backing a slew of Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud as she threw her support behind the President’s pressure campaign aimed at Raffensperger.
“All we have to do, Cleta, is find 11,000-plus votes,” Trump told Mitchell during the now-infamous phone call, according to the Post.
Mitchell urged Raffensperger to provide “records” that would supposedly help the Trump team prove their bogus claims that of fraudulent election results.
This isn’t the first wild Trump scandal that Mitchell has found herself getting wrapped up in.
In 2018, Mitchell — who previously served as an attorney for the National Rifle Association (NRA) — was identified by House Intel Committee Democrats as a witness in their inquiry into whether Russia had funneled money into the NRA to help the Trump 2016 campaign.
Mitchell blasted a fiery email to TPM at the time in response to McClatchy’s report that congressional investigators have learned she was worried about the Russian links.
Mitchell insisted that there was “nothing NOTHING to this entire Russia collusion story.”
“It is a complete fabrication by the left and their supplicants in the liberal media,” Mitchell told TPM in 2018. “Scumbags. All of it.”
