Cleta Mitchell, a top Republican lawyer representing Sharron Angle’s Senate bid in Nevada, told TPM this morning that the campaign ignored her advice about avoiding getting involved with Tea Party of Nevada candidate Scott Ashjian.
Mitchell said in a phone interview that the meeting — which Ashjian recorded and leaked to the press — was “a setup.”
[TPM SLIDESHOW: ‘Showdown In Searchlight’: Tea Partiers Rally To Boot Harry Reid]
The lawyer said Ashjian, who has been accused of various financial and legal shenanigans and has been called a “plant” by tea party groups, requested the meeting with Angle.
“They kept calling, they had this list of demands,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell told TPM:
The whole thing was just a setup. I told the campaign this is a waste of time. We shouldn’t even be talking to these people but they didn’t listen.
She said that Ashjian’s campaign was asking her to “release all litigation,” even though the Angle campaign hasn’t sued Ashjian for anything. Mitchell said Ashjian’s lawyer put her on the phone with the candidate and she found his requests “just beyond the pale.”
“I just said good luck to you, but you’ve got a situation on your hands,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said she hasn’t researched if Ashjian violated Nevada laws by recording his private meeting with Angle, but called the entire dust-up a “tempest in a teapot,” “a waste of time” and “useless.”
“It’s crazy to even be talking about this,” Mitchell said, adding she advised the campaign to “just calm down and quit talking about it.”
“It probably is illegal … I’ll do whatever my client tells me, but my recommendation would be to just move on,” Mitchell said.
More on Mitchell — who also reps Christine O’Donnell — can be found here.
Disqus Conversations
Click here to read the Disqus Commenting FAQ.