National Legal and Policy Center says Jones should lose law license for ‘outrageous, violent rhetoric’
Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones (D.) should be stripped of his license to practice law, a government watchdog group charged in a complaint Tuesday with the Virginia State Bar (VSB), the third such petition filed since the release of text messages showing Jones fantasizing about killing a GOP lawmaker and wishing for the death of that lawmaker’s child.
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) said Jones violated the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct, which require attorneys to demonstrate respect for public officials in their professional and personal affairs, when he sent text messages in 2022 to Virginia state delegate Carrie Coyner (R.) saying then-speaker of the state house, Todd Gilbert (R.), should get “two bullets to the head,” and that he would like to “piss on the graves” of his Republican colleagues over policy disagreements. Later, during a phone call with Coyner, Jones said he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own children die to spur her husband to change his political views.
“Jay Jones should be disbarred for his outrageous, violent rhetoric,” NLPC counsel Paul Kamenar told the Washington Free Beacon. “And even if he should be elected attorney general, he would be prohibited from carrying out his legal duties if he were disbarred or his license suspended. At a minimum, he would be under a cloud of an adverse disciplinary investigation by the Virginia State Bar.”
The watchdog group’s complaint comes as Jones’s campaign to replace incumbent attorney general Jason Miyares (R.) continues to implode in the fallout of a National Review report exposing his violent text messages. Jones once held a comfortable polling lead over Miyares, but is now trailing his Republican opponent and dragging his Democratic ally, gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, down with him, the Free Beacon reported. Spanberger, who is clinging onto a razor-thin lead over her Republican opponent, Lieutenant Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, refused to disavow Jones during a debate Thursday but continues to sell campaign apparel promoting Jones.
The NLPC isn’t alone in calling for the revocation of Jones’s law license. The Center to Advance Security in America has also filed complaints with the VSB and the District of Columbia Bar requesting they revoke Jones’s law licenses over his violent text messages, National Review reported.
The Bar complaints could spell trouble for Jones if he does win the November election. Jones must be admitted to the VSB in order to serve as the state’s attorney general, according to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which requires attorney generals to meet the same qualifications as state judges.
The NLPC also called on the VSB to investigate Jones for potentially misleading a New Kent County, Va., judge as part of his deal to avoid jail time after he was convicted of reckless driving in 2022 for driving 116 miles per hour on a highway. Jones was ordered to complete 1,000 hours of community service as part of that deal, but failed to disclose his personal affiliations with both of the groups he served that time with. Jones completed 500 hours of community service with Meet our Moment, a political action committee (PAC) he founded in 2021 to support Democratic candidates in Virginia.
New Kent County Commonwealth’s Attorney, Scott Renick, told 7News that Jones did not disclose his affiliation with Meet our Moment when he submitted a letter to the court that certified he completed 500 hours of community service with the PAC.
“It’s supposed to be something where you’re giving back to the community,” said Renick, who is investigating how Jones cleared his court-ordered community service obligation.
Jones claimed his other 500 hours of community service with the Virginia chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a group he represented as an attorney in a voting rights lawsuit it filed against Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R.).
“An investigation of the circumstances of Jones is warranted to see if he misled the court both in respect to the legitimacy of the ‘charities’ he provided service to as well as whether he in fact provided 1,000 hours in the prior year, which amounts to approximately 20 hours a week for an otherwise busy political lawyer,” the NLPC said in its complaint, adding that Jones “should be disciplined for his conduct as well as for his violent text messages.”
The Jones campaign did not return a request for comment.
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