Team McAuliffe emails reveal effort to 'kill this' Fox News story

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Fox News

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe's campaign raised eyebrows by spending nearly $60,000 to hire a high-profile attorney known for masterminding election-related legal challenges. When Fox News sent the campaign a request for comment, the McAuliffe campaign scrambled to "kill" the story, according to emails mistakenly sent to Fox News.

Less than a month before Election Day, McAuliffe's campaign spent $53,680 on the services of the Elias Law Group, a firm that Marc Elias started earlier this year, Fox News previously reported. Elias had formerly worked as a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie, which the Hillary Clinton campaign hired in 2016 in order to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump – research that included the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. Republicans have accused Elias of lying to hide the Clinton campaign's role in funding the dossier.

 

Elias has represented Democrats in efforts to contest elections. Going into the 2020 election, he represented Democrats challenging a Texas law barring "straight-ticket voting." 

House Republicans accused Elias of having a "serious conflict of interest" when he represented Iowa Democratic candidate Rita Hart in her effort to overturn the results of her extremely narrow loss to Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks. GOP members House Administration Committee said that Elias had a conflict because he and Perkins Coie – where he still worked at the time – also represented half of the Democratic committee members who would be deciding the case. 

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote that McAuliffe hiring Elias is an "astonishing move." 

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Poll: Republican Glenn Youngkin Ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe by 8 Points in Virginia Governor’s Race