McCloskeys can’t fulfill probation by representing Project Veritas

The Missouri Supreme Court has nixed a request by Mark and Patricia McCloskey to satisfy the terms of their disciplinary probation by providing pro bono legal services to the conservative investigative outfit Project Veritas.

In orders issued May 18, the court specified that the two attorneys are required to provide their 100 hours of service through “organizations that provide legal services without charge to or on behalf of poor or indigent Missouri residents.”

In an interview, Mark McCloskey said he believes the court and OCDC rejected his request because they’d prefer he work for a “more traditionally left-of-center” organization.

“Conservatives can be just as indigent and poor as people on the left, and Project Veritas is one of their only voices,” he said.

He argued that the group is the type of organization contemplated by the rule even though it doesn’t provide direct legal services.

“I think supporting our basic constitutional and God-given rights benefits every single citizen, including the indigent and poor, more so than any individual lawsuit does.” 

In a court filing on May 16, the McCloskeys said they had asked the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel to allow them to legal services to Project Veritas without compensation, citing its stated mission to “investigate and expose corruption, dishonesty, self-dealing, waste, fraud, and other misconduct in both public and private institutions in order to achieve a more ethical and transparent society.”  They argued that the court rule defining the types of organizations worthy of representation was a “morass of confusing regulations.”

Project Veritas is well known for producing videos and recordings obtained during undercover operations that often target progressive groups and mainstream media. Examples include coverage of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, that led to its losing federal funding. Critics say many of its videos are deceptively edited.

OCDC said the group didn’t meet the requirements of the relevant court rule and that it wouldn’t count as fulfilling their obligations under the terms of their probation. The agency said the McCloskeys could ask the Supreme Court to approve the group as an appropriate beneficiary of pro bono work, but it noted that it would oppose the request.

The Supreme Court in February placed the McCloskeys on a year’s probation as a consequence of their pleading guilty last year to misdemeanors stemming from a well-publicized incident outside their St. Louis home in 2020. Mark McCloskey, armed with a semi-automatic rifle, and Patricia McCloskey, armed with a handgun, confronted a group of protesters walking on the privately maintained street outside their home in St. Louis.

No shots were fired, and no one was injured. The McCloskeys said they acted in self-defense after members of the group made threats, though the protesters disputed that claim.

Mark McCloskey ultimately pleaded guilty to fourth-degree misdemeanor assault, and Patricia McCloskey to second-degree misdemeanor harassment. Gov. Mike Parson later pardoned them. Mark McCloskey is now running for the Republican nomination to Missouri’s U.S. Senate seat.

The cases are In Re: Mark T. McCloskey, SC99301, and In Re: Patricia McCloskey, SC99302.

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