- A legal activist group is trying to get Sen. Ted Cruz's law license suspended.
- It cited Cruz's efforts to overturn the 2020 election as the basis for its ethics complaint.
- It is seeking to have Cruz "disciplined for his conduct" like Trump-allied lawyer Rudy Giuliani was.
A group of legal activists called for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to be investigated and suspended from practicing the law for what they said was his "leading role" in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
The 15-page ethics complaint written by The 65 Project was filed to the state bar of Texas on Wednesday. It called for Cruz's conduct in the weeks between Election Day in 2020 and January 6, 2021 — the day of the Capitol riot — to be examined.
"Mr. Cruz played a leading role in the effort to overturn the 2020 elections. And while the same can be said about several other elected officials, Mr. Cruz's involvement was manifestly different," read the complaint.
The complaint also alleged that Cruz had taken on "the role of lawyer" in helping former President Donald Trump to litigate the election results.
"In doing so, Mr. Cruz moved beyond his position as a United States senator and sought to use more than his Twitter account and media appearances to support Mr. Trump's anti-democratic mission," the complaint read.
The complaint further alleged that Cruz "knew that claims of voter fraud or the election being stolen were false." It also cited the suspension of the Trump-allied lawyer Rudy Giuliani's law license, arguing that "just as Mr. Giuliani has been disciplined for his conduct, so should Mr. Cruz."
"Mr. Cruz chose to offer his professional license to Mr. Trump's arsenal during the latter's assault on our democracy," the complaint read. "He cannot be shielded from the consequences of that decision simply because, unlike Mr. Trump's other attorneys, he happens to hold high public office."
There are five members on The 65 Project's advisory board — including retired Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham and Paul Rosenzweig, a former top US Department of Homeland Security official who once investigated the Clintons. Also working with the organization is David Brock, an ally of Hillary Clinton.
The organization says its work involves holding "accountable the lawyers who raise fraudulent claims to overturn legitimate elections results, while also creating a rule-based system to prevent future attempts and to strengthen the mechanisms for accountability and deterrence."
A spokesman for Cruz told The New York Times that The 65 Project was a "far left dark money smear machine run by a who's who of shameless Democrat hacks. They're not a credible organization and their complaint won't be worth the paper it's printed on."
The Times did not cite evidence given by the Cruz spokesman that supported his statement. Representatives for Cruz and Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Rosenzweig, one of the group members, told The Times that the complaint served the purpose of making clear that those who make false statements and "transgress" rules will "at minimum suffer the public consequence of being called out for your misconduct."