The Trump RICO case is finding another local lawyer channeling a Founding Father.
Until last month, defense attorney Drew Findling, already known as the #BillionDollarLawyer for plucking hip-hop artists out of trouble, became famous for representing one Donald J. Trump in the Fulton County election case.
Findling, a self-avowed left-winger, once tweeted that Trump was “racist, cruel, sick, unforgivable and un-American.” But, he later said, everyone is entitled to legal representation.
And if you’re going to rep someone whose ideas you deplore, you might as well take on the biggest case in the country. He has since been replaced.
While explaining his decision to work for Trump, Findling said that John Adams represented British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre of 1770.
Now enter lawyer Chris Anulewicz into the powdered wig fray.
Anulewicz, who says he was a moderate Republican left behind by the party, is married to a liberal Democratic state legislator. And for nearly three years he repeatedly tore into Stop the Steal conspiracists on Twitter (the social media site now officially known as X).
On top of that, he defended Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a lawsuit filed by Trump after the 2020 election.
Credit: Twitter screen grab
Credit: Twitter screen grab
On Jan. 12, 2021, just a week after the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol and after Trump’s lawyers dismissed the Raffensperger suit, Anulewicz posted, “FBI, DOJ, NDGA US Atty’s Office, 60+ judges, investigations by various SOSs, hand recounts, and independent investigations all confirm the obvious. No fraud in the 2020 election. Those still suggesting otherwise fall in line with the UFO/Bigfoot crowd.”
Now, he’s representing a Sasquatch devotee.
Anulewicz is the defense attorney for Bob Cheeley, a lawyer who is one of the alleged conspirators in the Fulton case. According to the indictment, Cheeley was the legal conduit in Georgia in the conspiracy to undo the 2020 election.
The indictment alleges Cheeley was in the thick of the effort to orchestrate a Georgia slate of GOP electors for Trump, which would then be used to circumvent the state’s Democratic electors. Also, on Jan. 5, 2021, Cheeley was allegedly on 23 phone calls with a man involved with breaching the election equipment in Coffee County and with a crew who intimidated a Fulton election worker.
Cheeley has been a fabulously successful plaintiff’s lawyer, pulling down massive — if not record-breaking — verdicts and settlements in accidents. But in recent years, his legal acumen has been directed at political battles.
He has been involved with a couple of lawsuits looking to inspect 147,000 absentee ballots in Fulton. The cases were dismissed but one has been resurrected by the appeals court.
Georgia election investigators have not found fraudulent ballots but that sure hasn’t stopped the skeptics.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
Credit: Alyssa Pointer/Alyssa.Pointer@ajc.com
In an emailed note to “friends,” Cheeley said his “sin” was simply practicing law and that he still hopes a judge will allow the inspection of ballots.
“Once the double counted votes are removed as well as the unsupported 17,700 votes are removed, Trump won,” he wrote. “So, it proves I did have a good faith basis to pursue the matter.”
(So, Cheeley either still believes the election was stolen — or he’s positioning to let a future jury think he believes it was stolen).
Cheeley also represented Cathleen Latham, one of the accused GOP electors who was also allegedly involved in the Coffee County election office breach. She’s been indicted, too.
A year ago, Anulewicz was saying: “Everyone should remember the election deniers tried to create a problem based on this exact issue in Coffee County to argue SOS could not certify 2020 election. This manufactured fraud was cornerstone of Trump/(David) Schafer lawsuit election challenges.”
Or this: ”Shafer was head of GA GOP while filing frivolous suits against a sitting (Republican governor) and (secretary of state) and while convening an illegal slate of ‘electors’ in an attempted coup. These folks all deserve the consequences of their actions.”
Shafer is one of the 19 defendants in Fulton.
Today, Anulewicz says, “I stand by what I said before, both publicly and privately.”
He insists there is no conflict for him to switch from representing Raffensperger to now being an alleged conspirator’s lawyer. That suit was filed by Trump and Shafer, not Cheeley, he said.
Maybe so, but it’s possible Anulewicz may have to cross-examine Raffensperger, his former client with whom he had privileged, attorney-client conversations. One lawyer told me Anulewicz could bring in another attorney to do that, if needed.
Anulewicz said his (current) client was simply “representing clients and looking into the mechanics of that election; there were a lot of questions flying around at the time.
“Now, even though the election issues were resolved,“ said Anulewicz, pointing out a truism that Cheeley will sure debate, “Bob, a lawyer who was asked to look into those questions is being prosecuted for looking into those questions.”
Anulewicz called the indictment “very, very flawed.”
So, is the whole indictment hinky?
“I’m only commenting about Bob,” he said, “And Bob didn’t do anything wrong.”
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