Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough is the latest major law firm to represent a high-profile client embroiled in an investigation related to the 2020 US Presidential election.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) has contacted the Columbia, SC-based firm to challenge a subpoena from a Georgia prosecutor seeking testimony before a special grand jury inquest. The panel is investigating possible interference in state elections by former President Donald Trump and others working on his behalf.
Nelson Mullins’ partners, E. Bart Daniel and Marshall “Matt” Austin, said in a statement Graham was only a witness, not a “subject or target of the investigation” being conducted by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis .
“It’s all politics,” Daniel and Austin said. “Fulton County is involved in a fishing expedition and is working with the January 6 committee in Washington.” Any information from an interview or testimony by Graham would be “promptly shared with this committee,” they said.
Daniel and Austin work in the company’s office in Charleston, SC.
Daniel is a former chief federal attorney in the Palmetto State whose notable clients include convicted con man Amir Golestan. He was hired in 2017 to co-head the firm’s commercial and government investigations practice. Austin, another former federal prosecutor, joined Nelson Mullins as legal counsel last year before being made a partner in January.
Bloomberg News reported this week that Willis’ team has also summoned Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who resigned from Greenberg Traurig in 2018, to focus full-time on representing Trump’s personal interests. Cleta Mitchell, who resigned from Foley & Lardner in 2021 and faced an ethics complaint earlier this year over her work for Trump in Georgia, has also been subpoenaed.
Nelson Mullins’ ties to Trump run deep.
The firm advised a company backed by Trump last year on its plans to go public by merging with a special purpose vehicle and creating a social media rival to Big Tech. Jon Sale, attorney for Nelson Mullins, was once part of Trump’s first impeachment defense team and represented Giuliani in his response to a congressional subpoena related to that trial.
According to Federal Election Commission records, a political action committee associated with Nelson Mullins donated $10,000 to Graham’s 2020 re-election campaign. During that election cycle, the Nelson Mullins PAC donated nearly $154,400 to Democrats and $127,500 to Republicans.
Graham “plans to go to court” to challenge Georgia’s subpoena and “expects to prevail,” Daniel and Austin said.