On Dec. 8, 2015 — the same day that then-Republican presidential primary frontrunner Donald Trump called for banning Muslims from entering the United States — a Twitter user named Jerry Morgan posted a question.
“Where’s the evidence that ‘Islam is a religion of peace?’" Morgan wrote. “They’ve gone to war against every society they’ve encountered for 1000s of years.”
A week later, in a tweet addressed to the Fox Business channel, Morgan wrote: “Muslims will take everything we give them and us [sic] it against us. Time to wake up!”
It’s the type of rhetoric one is likely to find in the internet’s right-wing fever swamps or, say, on the timeline of one of Tennessee’s U.S. senators. But Morgan’s tweets — and there appear to be many more where the above came from — have caused a particular stir because of his job. He is allegedly the same Jerry Morgan who works as an attorney on the staff of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility. The board serves as an ethics watchdog for the state’s attorneys. Morgan was serving as Disciplinary Counsel in the board’s civil action against Nashville attorney Brian Manookian. Attorney Daniel Horwitz, who is representing Manookian in the matter, filed a motion in the Davidson County Chancery Court on Nov. 24 to disqualify Morgan as counsel on the case “for being an anti-Muslim bigot.”
“Without purporting to catalogue the full scope of Mr. Morgan’s enormously disturbing and flagrantly racist public pronouncements,” Horwitz writes in the motion, “Mr. Morgan unmistakably harbors extreme prejudice against Muslims and Islam generally.”
The motion includes exhibits with screenshots of dozens of tweets posted by Morgan — some racist, some conspiratorial and others simply run-of-the-mill albeit slightly unhinged pro-Trump posts. And they’re not all from years ago. They include recent tweets expressing support for baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud costing Trump the 2020 election.
“I find it amazing that with all this continual counting, they only seem to be finding extra votes for Biden.” Morgan tweeted on Nov. 5. “Not any for Trump. Nothing suspicious about that …”
In tweets from 2016 and 2017, he suggests a belief in the conspiracy theories around the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.
Horwitz’s motion, however, was focused primarily on Morgan’s anti-Muslim statements. He notes in the motion that Manookian is married to a Muslim woman who is also a well-known lawyer and that the couple’s two children “are being raised in a Muslim household.”
“Regrettably, these facts carry considerable significance in this case, because Disciplinary Counsel Jerry Morgan is a proud anti-Muslim bigot,” Horwitz writes.
Morgan deleted his Twitter account soon after the motion was filed.
Manookian's conduct has been under scrutiny in recent years and he has fought the board over a series of disciplinary actions. Most recently, in October 2019, he was suspended, with the board citing evidence that he “improperly communicated” with an opposing client and allegedly sent an email to an opposing attorney in a different case that included a picture of the client’s wife and family, “causing opposing counsel to be fearful for the safety of his family.” Manookian disputed those allegations.
The BPR has not responded directly to the motion containing Morgan’s tweets, but it did file a motion on Dec. 3 asking the court to allow Morgan to withdraw as the attorney of record on the case. In response, Horwitz filed a motion arguing that the board’s motion to withdraw Morgan was inadequate, asking the court to order the board to file affidavits indicating whether they dispute any of the tweets highlighted by Horwitz’s previous motion. He also highlights the fact that Morgan deleted the tweets in question, along with his entire Twitter account, an act the motion describes as “knowing and deliberate spoliation of material evidence.”
“Mr. Morgan's statements are profoundly disturbing and disqualifying, and the notion that a shameless bigot has been involved in ethics enforcement here not only compromises the integrity of this proceeding — it shatters confidence in the integrity of Tennessee's Board of Professional Responsibility itself,” Horwitz told the Scene in a written statement Wednesday.
It’s the same board that has investigated other attorneys, like Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott, for anti-Muslim comments. The Tennessee Supreme Court’s Rules of Professional Conduct state that “a lawyer who, in the course of representing a client, knowingly manifests, by words or conduct, bias or prejudice based on race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status” is committing misconduct in a way that is “prejudicial to the administration of justice.”
The BPR has not responded to a request for comment about whether Morgan will be disciplined or continue working for the board.
This story was updated to add context about the board's investigations into Brian Manookian's conduct.
