Scott Pelley’s 60 Minutes segment on Sunday started with a disclaimer, as if he knew the segment critical of President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at curtailing frivolous political lawsuits was a more than a tad biased.
“It was nearly impossible to get anyone on camera for this story, because of the fear now running through our system of justice,” Pelley explained. What he actually meant is likely that CBS leadership didn’t insist that he offer a balanced segment by finding credible sources on both sides of the topic.
When Pelley introduced Democrat operative Marc Elias, the disclaimer made sense. It was akin to saying, “I swear this is true, but I can only get my mom to back me up.” Only, Elias is nothing like your mama.
Elias is a political attorney who has made a career of attacking Trump and Republicans, mostly in the courts — which is why he is mentioned by name in the executive order.
“Donald Trump is the walking embodiment of everything that is wrong with the American political system,” Elias told Pelley. “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 doing something right.’”
Pelley neglected to mention some salient facts in his report. He did not offer important details about the work Elias did while he represented the Hillary Clinton campaign, nor did he mention that Elias represented Kamala Harris’ campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
While working for Clinton, Elias hired the law firm Fusion GPS for opposition research that Clinton could use against Trump in the 2016 election. Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele to write the bogus “Steele dossier,” which became the bogus foundation for the Russian collusion hoax.
Ever wonder how so many election laws changed right before the 2020 election? No, it wasn’t Covid. Elias and the law firm he founded, Democracy Docket, got courts to change laws to support Democrat strategies. In 2021 the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sanctioned Elias for pursuing this strategy in a case involving straight-ticket voting.
Elias has not taken a rest. He was a leader of the lawfare behind former Sen. Bob Casey’s refusal to concede in the 2024 election’s Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race. After Elias apparently exhausted every legal challenge he could muster, the seat finally went to Dave McCormick.
Elias is connected to groups working to prevent the passage of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require everyone registering to vote to provide proof of United States citizenship.
As I previously reported, Elias is the chair of Democracy Forward, a $14 million anti-Trump “nonprofit” behind the legal challenge that tried to force the United States to take back 238 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang whom Trump deported to an El Salvador prison.
That case was heard by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, a Democrat activist on the bench, and brought by Elias-led Democracy Forward and the ACLU. The deck is stacked against the Trump administration before its representatives walk into the room in cases like this.
Long-time Executive Producer Bill Owens was at the helm at 60 Minutes until two weeks ago when he quit, as The Federalist’s Mark Hemingway recently reported. Such a departure often signals a change in programming. But based on Sunday’s segment and its soft-selling a hard-left Democrat operative as the prevailing expert on Trump’s executive order, it seems unlikely 60 Minutes will turn to truth-telling any time soon.
Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.
