CBS News’s 60 Minutes continued to play with fire amid their rumored lawsuit settlement negotiations with President Trump. During their Sunday episode, purported journalist Scott Pelley lionized lawyer Marc Elias’s work against Trump and Republicans nationwide. He’s the same Democratic Party hustler who sourced the Russia Collusion Hoax and tried to steal a House election in Iowa after it was certified.
“It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice,” proclaimed pompous “journalist” Scott Pelley despite speaking with nearly half a dozen different people.
Pelley pouted about a series of recent executive orders signed by Trump designed to cripple the radical left’s ability to engage in what has been coined as “lawfare.” “Many firms and attorneys have been targeted, among them Marc Elias, a longtime opponent of Trump who is the only lawyer the president has named who was willing to appear on 60 Minutes,” he touted.
“Elias, and others, are warning that Trump’s assault on the legal profession threatens the rule of law itself. Elias says that for him, it began with the president’s personal grudge,” Pelley said, going on to hype Elias’s history of getting involved with elections: “Marc Elias first crossed Trump in 2016. He was the top lawyer for the Clinton campaign. Then, in 2020, when Trump and allies challenged the election results, Elias fought in court and won. Trump calls him a ‘thug.’”
When it came to the fact that Elias was the source of the Russia Collusion Hoax, Pelley downplayed it:
What Trump means by “a hoax” were allegations in 2016 of shady dealings with Russia by Trump and his campaign. He’s right that the FBI could not corroborate what was described as rumor. At least one allegation was promoted to the media by Clinton campaign representatives when Marc Elias was general counsel.
Pelley also omitted that Elias was one of the driving forces behind Democratic Party efforts in 2021 to steal a House seat in Iowa rightfully won by Republican Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a result that was certified by the Iowa legislature. They ultimately failed to steal it.
Pelley also had the nerve to whine about Trump calling Elise “grossly unethical”:
In this memo, six weeks ago, Trump says Elias is an example of “grossly unethical misconduct.” The president directs the attorney general to seek sanctions against any lawyer, anywhere, for “unreasonable, and vexatious” litigation against the government. “Unreasonable,” apparently, in the eye of the president.
While ignoring Elias’s efforts to undo free and fair elections, Pelley promoted the party hitman’s claims that he was “fighting for democracy in court” and putting himself at risk:
ELIAS: Donald Trump hates me because I fight hard, and I fight for free and fair elections. I insist on fighting for democracy in court, fighting for voting rights in court, and insist on telling the truth about what the outcome of the 2020 election was.
PELLEY: Are there risks in doing the work that you’re doing?
ELIAS: I’d be an idiot not to be worried. The question though is what do you do? Right? Do you just cower in the corner? Do you just try to disappear? Do you just leave democracy to fend for itself? Or do you stand tall and do the best you can every day to represent your clients and try to preserve the rule of law?
He was certainly fighting for Democrats in court.
The transcript is below. Click “expand” to read:
CBS’s 60 Minutes
May 4, 2025
7:05:18 p.m. EasternSCOTT PELLEY: It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story because of the fear now running through our system of justice.
In recent weeks, President Trump has signed orders against several law firms — orders with the power to destroy them. That matters because lawsuits have been a check on the president’s power. Many firms and attorneys have been targeted, among them Marc Elias, a longtime opponent of Trump who is the only lawyer the president has named who was willing to appear on 60 Minutes.
Elias, and others, are warning that Trump’s assault on the legal profession threatens the rule of law itself. Elias says that for him, it began with the president’s personal grudge.
[Cuts to video]
MARC ELIAS: Donald Trump hates me because I fight hard, and I fight for free and fair elections. I insist on fighting for democracy in court, fighting for voting rights in court, and insist on telling the truth about what the outcome of the 2020 election was.
PELLEY: Are there risks in doing the work that you’re doing?
ELIAS: I’d be an idiot not to be worried. The question though is what do you do? Right? Do you just cower in the corner? Do you just try to disappear? Do you just leave democracy to fend for itself? Or do you stand tall and do the best you can every day to represent your clients and try to preserve the rule of law?
PELLEY: Marc Elias first crossed Trump in 2016. He was the top lawyer for the Clinton campaign. Then, in 2020, when Trump and allies challenged the election results, Elias fought in court and won. Trump calls him a “thug.”
ELIAS: Donald Trump is the walking embodiment of everything that is wrong with the American political system. And so, when Donald Trump says that I am unethical or that I am undermining his vision of America, I say, “Boy, I must be doin’ something right.”
PELLEY: Elias was top of mind for Trump this past March, both he and another lawyer who had once investigated the president.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP (March 14, 2025, Department of Justice remarks): With the help of radicals like Marc Elias, Mark Pomerantz. And these are people that nobody’s ever seen anything like it. So many others, but these are people that are bad people, really bad people. They tried to turn America into a corrupt, communist and Third World country. But in the end, the thugs failed, and the truth won.
(…)
7:16:51 p.m. Eastern
TRUMP (March 21, 2025, in the Oval Office): Those law firms did bad things, bad things. They went after me for years, Russia, Russia, Russia, hoax, all a hoax.
PELLEY: What Trump means by “a hoax” were allegations in 2016 of shady dealings with Russia by Trump and his campaign. He’s right that the FBI could not corroborate what was described as rumor. At least one allegation was promote[d] to the media by Clinton campaign representatives when Marc Elias was general counsel.
In this memo, six weeks ago, Trump says Elias is an example of “grossly unethical misconduct.” The president directs the attorney general to seek sanctions against any lawyer, anywhere, for “unreasonable, and vexatious” litigation against the government. “Unreasonable,” apparently, in the eye of the president.
Are we reaching a point where a person will go to a law firm with a case that is opposed to the president of the United States and the law firm will think, “Do we really wanna take this case?”
ELIAS: We’re already there. They are deciding not to take on certain kinds of clients that might upset the administration or not taking on certain kinds of causes that might put them in the crosshairs of the administration.
(…)
