In Peter Ticktin’s world, there at all times appears to be a conspiracy or cover-up lurking.
The 2020 election? Ticktin claims a number of international locations interfered to steal it from President Donald Trump.
The legal case in opposition to Tina Peters, the previous Colorado clerk who was freed from jail final month? Ticktin insists his shopper was the sufferer of Democratic election officers concealing their very own supposed crimes.
And the upcoming midterm elections? Ticktin says a plot is afoot for Democrats to steal sufficient congressional seats to impeach and take away Trump and Vice President JD Vance from workplace, in order that House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries can ascend to the presidency from the speakership.
Ticktin, 80, is, in his phrases, a boyhood “best friend” of Trump’s from boarding college on the New York Military Academy. Now a lawyer primarily based in Florida — with a colourful clientele that has included a member of the Backstreet Boys and Meghan Markle’s estranged half-sister — Ticktin has change into a distinguished 2020 election denier. He’s often pushed unproven conspiracies and represented main figures within the motion, together with Peters, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, and plenty of of the convicted US Capitol rioters from January 6, 2021.
Ticktin represented Trump in civil litigation and joined Peters within the Oval Office final week for a gathering with Trump following her launch, although a White House official downplayed their relationship. But amid Trump’s repeated frustrations that Congress can’t go the SAVE America Act to enact strict voter ID restrictions, Ticktin is one of a quantity of Trump allies pushing him to go even further with an govt order to successfully seize federal control of the upcoming midterms by declaring a nationwide emergency primarily based on alleged international interference by way of digital voting machines.
It’s a state of affairs that state election officers and election legislation specialists say would plunge the nation right into a constitutional disaster. The US Constitution clearly offers energy over elections to the states and Congress — however not the president.
In a wide-ranging interview with NCS, Ticktin insisted that proof proving claims concerning the 2020 election would change into public quickly, asserting that Venezuela, China, Iran and others are all concerned and that proof would emerge from the Trump administration’s seize and indictment of Venezuelan chief Nicolás Maduro.
“With the evidence that we’ve got, and with the evidence that would be forthcoming, that there’ll be no question about it — and what these machines did,” Ticktin stated. “It’s a surreptitious overtaking of a country.”
Six years after the intensely scrutinized 2020 election, such proof has by no means surfaced publicly, whilst Trump and allies like Ticktin have continued to declare Trump’s loss to Joe Biden was not reputable.
A US intelligence evaluation from 2021 discovered {that a} quantity of international locations, together with Russia, China, Iran and Venezuela, tried to affect the 2020 election — some to assist Trump, some to damage Trump, and others simply to sow chaos. But importantly, US intelligence concluded that no nation “attempted to alter any technical aspect of the voting process in the 2020 US elections, including voter registration, casting ballots, vote tabulation, or reporting results.”
Ticktin is cagey when requested the place his info is coming from contained in the Trump administration or who he’s partaking with. He says he speaks to Trump just a few occasions a 12 months and has an open line of communication that dates again to his representing the president in an ill-fated lawsuit in opposition to Hillary Clinton whereas Trump was out of workplace. He additionally says he’s in touch with officers on the Justice Department — and he even floated himself in right-wing media as a candidate to succeed former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Under Trump, outsiders with a line into the president have generally made a bigger affect on the administration’s agenda than elected officers or conventional Washington powerbrokers. But there are causes to query how a lot affect Ticktin actually wields inside Trump world.
One White House official advised NCS that whereas Ticktin is nicely which means, he appears to overstate his present relationship with Trump. Ticktin doesn’t converse with the president often and doesn’t affect the White House’s insurance policies towards elections and voting, the official stated.
Still, Ticktin secured a serious victory in May when Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, commuted the sentence of Peters, who was convicted of conspiring with Trump allies to breach voting programs in her county in 2021.
Ticktin had briefly appeared to notch one other win when the Justice Department introduced a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” — one thing he’d been pushing for months, with shoppers keen to file claims. But the Trump administration has since appeared to kill the concept amid stiff, bipartisan political and authorized blowback. Ticktin says he’s nonetheless pursuing lawsuits for his shoppers in opposition to the US authorities over January 6.
A evaluation of Ticktin’s prolonged profession as a lawyer in Florida and his efforts making an attempt to assist Trump show election fraud present each that Ticktin has a aptitude for the dramatic in addition to a willingness to push the boundaries of the authorized course of. His unorthodox and generally line-crossing conduct has been repeatedly rebuked in court docket by judges, however he says he’ s merely working on the “cutting edge of the law.”
Ticktin’s claims of international election interference within the 2020 election are targeted on voting machines, notably these manufactured by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, which labored for years in Venezuelan elections.
Unproven allegations that voting machines had been hacked by international powers by way of their software program have been percolating for years — it’s a declare Trump’s then-lawyer Sidney Powell made at an infamous press conference within the days after Trump’s 2020 loss.
A March 2021 report from the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security debunked the allegations of international hacking, saying a multi-agency investigation discovered the claims had been “not credible.”
DHS and DOJ discovered no proof “that a foreign government or other actors compromised election infrastructure to manipulate election results,” the report said.
The intelligence group’s declassified report stated that US intelligence had “no information suggesting that the current or former Venezuelan regimes were involved in attempts to compromise US election infrastructure.”
Ticktin is a component of a bunch of 2020 election deniers who’ve dismissed the federal government’s conclusions — and urged the Trump administration to preserve investigating 2020. Since Trump returned to workplace, the administration sought to discover fraud within the 2020 election by seizing ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, after a referral from former White House official and 2020 election denier Kurt Olsen, in addition to voting machines from Puerto Rico.
Ticktin pointed to the administration’s expenses in opposition to Maduro and one other former Venezuelan minister in May, saying that the onetime Venezuelan chief was the important thing cog that might lead to proof of election fraud spilling out.
“He’s gonna talk. He’s gonna sing like a canary,” Ticktin stated. “Maduro is one of the heads of the snake that caused all of this.”
DOJ officers, nevertheless, pushed again on the concept Maduro has supplied any proof of election-related crimes. The Justice Department’s expenses in opposition to Maduro are associated to worldwide drug trafficking, and prosecutors have by no means indicated the investigation into Maduro went past the drug conspiracy.
A lawyer for Maduro didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.
Last 12 months, Ticktin helped to draft an govt order to declare a nationwide emergency primarily based on alleged 2020 international election interference, which asserts that Trump can take steps together with limiting most mail-in voting and banning the use of voting machines.
“The machines are still in play,” Ticktin claimed.
Trump did launch an govt order earlier this 12 months that sought to curb mail-in voting, although it didn’t go practically so far as Ticktin is searching for (federal judges have blocked the US Postal Service from finishing up the order).
Ticktin’s historical past with Trump dates again to their time on the New York Military Academy, a boarding college about 50 miles north of New York City.
“We were very close. In fact, you could say we were best friends in our senior year of high school,” Ticktin stated.
Ticktin went on to change into a lawyer, first in Ontario, Canada after which in Boca Raton, Florida. Working as a civil litigator, Ticktin proved a knack for producing headlines. While defending owners dealing with foreclosures in 2010, he made national news by releasing 150 depositions from financial institution workers who stated they’d little to no formal coaching and skirted necessities whereas signing foreclosures affidavits.
Ticktin additionally represented notable shoppers extra not too long ago, together with Markle’s estranged half-sister in a defamation lawsuit in opposition to the Duchess of Sussex and a member of the Backstreet Boys over a Florida beach property dispute.
Ticktin’s efforts in 2010 helped many of his shoppers keep away from foreclosures. But the Florida Bar investigated the novel manner he was paid by shoppers missing funds — by taking out a mortgage owed to the legislation agency in the event that they gained their instances. Ticktin says he was cleared of wrongdoing.
Ticktin’s Florida bar license was additionally suspended three months in 2009 over conflict-of-interest allegations.
As Trump launched his 2016 political marketing campaign and gained the presidency, Ticktin was usually quoted in information tales about Trump’s childhood, corresponding to a Washington Post story that recalled Trump’s reaction to the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 2020, Ticktin penned his personal guide concerning the president: “What Makes Trump Tick: My Years with Donald Trump from New York Military Academy to the Present.”
After the president tried to overturn the 2020 election outcomes and his supporters rioted on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Ticktin grew to become half of Trump’s cadre of attorneys and in addition represented some of essentially the most distinguished election deniers.
Controversy adopted him all through the authorized system.
Ticktin joined with Trump lawyer Alina Habba to symbolize Trump in a sprawling 2022 civil lawsuit filed in opposition to Hillary Clinton, alleging that she conspired to undermine his 2016 marketing campaign by tying him to Russia. A choose threw out the go well with and sanctioned Habba, Ticktin and the opposite attorneys for making allegations “that were either knowingly false or made in reckless disregard for the truth.” An appeals court docket upheld the sanctions.
In current years, Ticktin led a surprisingly successful effort to free Peters, the county clerk who grew to become a folk hero amongst election deniers for being the final individual in jail for crimes associated to efforts to undermine the 2020 outcomes.
Peters was found guilty of state expenses in a 2021 conspiracy to breach voting machines in Mesa County, Colorado, in hopes of proving Trump’s voter fraud claims. Ticktin joined her authorized staff after the trial and have become a number one advocate in right-wing media, and past.
In December, Ticktin despatched a nine-page letter to Trump, making the case for a presidential pardon. He appealed to Trump’s longstanding grievances concerning the election.
“Tina Peters is a critical, and necessary witness to the most serious crime perpetrated against the United States in history,” Ticktin wrote, referring to the 2020 presidential election.
Within days, Trump granted the symbolic federal pardon. And extra importantly, Trump additionally mounted a monthslong stress marketing campaign in opposition to Colorado and its Democratic governor — the one one who held clemency power for her state-level crimes — to strive to safe Peters’ freedom.
Polis granted a commutation in May, drawing bipartisan blowback from state prosecutors and lawmakers. Peters was launched the subsequent month. Among different issues, Polis cited a letter Peters included in her clemency petition the place she, in his phrases, “expressed contrition.”
But in an interview with NCS, Ticktin disputed the notion that Peters is “feeling contrition and remorse.”
And on the day of Peters’ commutation, Ticktin’s first public assertion credited Trump — not Polis.
“Without his efforts, she would still be behind bars,” Ticktin stated.
Ticktin accompanied Peters final week when Trump hosted her on the White House. “We had a wonderful talk,” Ticktin stated of the assembly.
“‘FREE TINA!’ became the rallying cry of the Republican Party over the past two years,” Trump posted on Truth Social, together with a photograph of Peters.
In addition to Peters, Ticktin represents different distinguished election deniers making an attempt to fend off defamation lawsuits tied to their false voter fraud claims.
Among his shoppers are Byrne, the previous Overstock CEO, and Joe Oltman, a podcaster from Colorado. They had been sued by Dominion Voting Systems and a former Dominion govt for falsely claiming their machines fraudulently flipped hundreds of thousands of votes in 2020 from Trump to Joe Biden.
These instances have been thrown into chaos thanks to conspiracy-filled emails from Ticktin to opposing counsel, his continued work with an lawyer disqualified for leaking Dominion’s information, and even a bodily altercation earlier than a deposition, in accordance to a NCS evaluation of dozens of court docket information.
The combat occurred in January earlier than ex-Dominion govt Eric Coomer was set to be deposed in his case in opposition to Byrne. Coomer’s lawyer, Charlie Cain, stated in court docket filings that he was “physically attacked” by Ticktin, who “shoved” him twice whereas “yelling” and “shouting” concerning the deposition.
These claims had been backed up by surveillance footage and eyewitness affidavits. “Despite only being involved in this case for six months, Ticktin has managed to violate virtually every rule of decorum,” Cain wrote in a February submitting.
Ticktin has claimed that Cain was the aggressor and referred to as him a “lying sleazebag” in court docket filings. “I was assaulted by Cain and responded appropriately by pushing Mr. Cain,” he advised NCS. “I should have slugged him, or at least that is what he deserved.”
The Byrne-Dominion case has been equally roiled by Ticktin’s antics.
Lawyers for Dominion advised the choose that metadata in a quick filed by Ticktin confirmed that it was authored by Stefanie Lambert, an election-denying lawyer already banned from the case for leaking. In Ticktin’s later filings, the writer title was switched to Rick Astley, of “rickroll” meme fame.
Internal emails later made public in court docket filings confirmed Ticktin insulting Dominion attorneys, spurning the collegiality often seen amongst attorneys.
“Let’s not forget who the real criminal is here,” he advised the Dominion staff, accusing their shoppers of election crimes associated to 2020.
After Trump returned to the White House, Ticktin joined forces with Missouri lawyer Mark McCloskey — who gained notoriety in 2020 after he and his spouse pointed weapons at Black Lives Matter demonstrators from their St. Louis entrance yard — to push for compensation for these charged, then pardoned by Trump, for his or her function within the January 6 riot on the US Capitol.
Last 12 months, Ticktin repeatedly criticized then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has since been nominated to change into the full-time lawyer common, over the therapy of January 6 defendants.
“He doesn’t understand what’s going on with the weaponization,” Ticktin stated of Blanche. “He never took control of his own department in a way that would fix it.”
But Ticktin’s partnership with McCloskey, who was representing a whole bunch of January 6 shoppers, led to acrimony.
Earlier this 12 months, McCloskey stepped away from the trouble after receiving a medical analysis with a median life expectancy of lower than three years. He advised NCS he feared he wouldn’t have the opportunity to see his shoppers’ instances by way of, so he handed them to Ticktin. (He declined to specify the precise situation.)
Then a month later, the Justice Department introduced the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that would have reimbursed these convicted of crimes associated to January 6. McCloskey wrote to his shoppers that he meant to “continue the fight” now that the fund was on the desk to shorten the timeline.
But there was a rift with Ticktin, McCloskey advised NCS. Many of his shoppers caught with Ticktin and didn’t return, he stated.
“Peter, for whatever reason, apparently wasn’t very happy about me wanting to step back in,” McCloskey stated. “He has made it clear that he no longer wishes to work with me.”
Ticktin stated that McCloskey give up and handed off his shoppers with no discover, and that he selected not to proceed his partnership with McCloskey as a result of “he does not work well with me.” He filed a lawsuit final week in opposition to the federal authorities representing a dozen January 6 defendants alleging prosecutorial misconduct.