Marc Erik Elias was born on February 1,1969 and is an American Democratic Party elections lawyer.
22 Facts About Marc Elias
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Marc Elias served as general counsel for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign.
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In 2020 and 2021, on behalf of the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee, Marc Elias oversaw the state-by-state response to lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign contesting the 2020 presidential election results.
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Marc Elias earned a Bachelor of Arts in government in 1990 from Hamilton College, at which he attended a class taught by Bernie Sanders.
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Marc Elias then earned a master's degree in political science from Duke University and a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law.
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In 2004, Marc Elias served as general counsel to John Kerry's presidential campaign.
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Marc Elias represented the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Governors Association, and a number of Democratic members of Congress.
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Marc Elias has represented the leadership of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.
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Marc Elias served as lead counsel for Senator Al Franken in the 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota recount and contest, the longest recount and contest in American history.
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Marc Elias has testified on campaign finance before committees in both houses of Congress and before the Federal Election Commission.
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Marc Elias has worked on voting rights and redistricting lawsuits across the US.
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Marc Elias serves on the board of advisors of Let America Vote, an organization founded by former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander that aims to end voter suppression.
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Marc Elias served as the attorney for Dan McCready during the investigation of fraud allegations in the 2018 election in North Carolina's 9th congressional district.
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In January 2019, Marc Elias became general counsel of the Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign.
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In 2021, as several Republican-dominated state legislatures passed laws to tighten election procedures and voting requirements, Marc Elias filed suits challenging the new laws, often within hours of the bills being signed.
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In December 2021, Marc Elias asked the full court to reconsider the panel's decision.
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Marc Elias led a Hopewell Fund project called the Democracy Docket Legal Fund that filed lawsuits to block Republican voting legislation.
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Elias's tactics have been criticized by legal scholar Richard L Hasen who has written a blog post outlining the differences in approaches to defending election law Hasen and Elias had previously disagreed on legal tactics.
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On May 18,2022, Marc Elias was called to testify by prosecutors for special counsel John Durham at the trial of his former law partner Michael Sussmann, who had been charged with making a false statement to FBI general counsel James Baker during a meeting they had in September 2016.
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Marc Elias acknowledged hiring Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research against Clinton's opponent Donald Trump, asserting it was part of a larger effort to protect the Clinton campaign from possible libel suits from Trump or others.
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Marc Elias said that in representing high-profile political figures, he hired firms that could ensure confidentiality to avoid leaks than might damage his clients.
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The Durham prosecution called Marc Elias to testify at the outset of the trial, apparently to reinforce what it contended was an effort by Sussmann and the Clinton campaign to draw FBI and press attention to potential communications between computer servers at the Russian Alfa-Bank and the Trump Organization.