Current:Home > FinanceLin Wood, attorney who challenged Trump's 2020 election loss, gives up law license-LoTradeCoin
Lin Wood, attorney who challenged Trump's 2020 election loss, gives up law license
View Date:2024-12-23 19:04:50
Attorney Lin Wood, who filed legal challenges seeking to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, is relinquishing his law license, electing to retire from practicing rather than face possible disbarment. Multiple states have weighed disciplining him for pushing Trump's continued false claims that he defeated Joe Biden.
On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to "retire" his law license in light of "disciplinary proceedings pending against me." In the request, made in a letter and posted on his Telegram account, Wood acknowledges that he is "prohibited from practicing law in this state and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission."
Wood, a licensed attorney in Georgia since 1977, did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday seeking comment on the letter. A listing on the website for the State Bar of Georgia accessed on Wednesday showed him as retired and with no disciplinary infractions on his record.
In the wake of the 2020 election, Trump praised Wood as doing a "good job" filing legal challenges seeking to overturn his loss, though Trump's campaign at times distanced itself from him. Dozens of lawsuits making such allegations were rejected by the courts across the country.
Officials in Georgia had been weighing whether to disbar Wood over his efforts, holding a disciplinary trial earlier this year. Wood sued the state bar in 2022, claiming the bar's request that he undergo a mental health evaluation as part of its probe violated his constitutional rights, but a federal appeals court tossed that ruling, saying Wood failed to show there was "bad faith" behind the request.
In 2021, the Georgia secretary of state's office opened an investigation into where Wood had been living when he voted early in person in the 2020 general election, prompted by Wood's announcement on Telegram that he had moved to South Carolina. Officials ruled that Wood did not violate Georgia election laws.
Wood, who purchased three former plantations totaling more than $16 million, moved to South Carolina several years ago, and unsuccessfully ran for chairman of that state's GOP in 2021.
In May, a Michigan watchdog group filed a complaint against Wood and eight other Trump-aligned lawyers alleging they had committed misconduct and should be disciplined for filing a lawsuit challenging Mr. Biden's 2020 election win in that state. A court previously found the attorneys' lawsuit had abused the court system.
Wood, whose name was on the 2020 Michigan lawsuit, has insisted that the only role he played was telling fellow attorney Sidney Powell he was available if she needed a seasoned litigator. Powell defended the lawsuit and said lawyers sometimes have to raise what she called "unpopular issues."
Other attorneys affiliated with efforts to keep Trump in power following his 2020 election loss have faced similar challenges. Attorney John Eastman, architect of that strategy, faces 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California stemming from his development of a dubious legal strategy aimed at having then-Vice President Mike Pence interfere with the certification of Mr. Biden's victory.
veryGood! (1829)
Related
- Stop What You're Doing—Moo Deng Just Dropped Her First Single
- Elon Musk has lost more money than anyone in history, Guinness World Records says
- For a Climate-Concerned President and a Hostile Senate, One Technology May Provide Common Ground
- World Talks on a Treaty to Control Plastic Pollution Are Set for Nairobi in February. How To Do So Is Still Up in the Air
- Duke basketball vs Kentucky live updates: Highlights, scores, updates from Champions Classic
- Warming Trends: A Song for the Planet, Secrets of Hempcrete and Butterfly Snapshots
- The Sweet Way Travis Barker Just Addressed Kourtney Kardashian's Pregnancy
- Why higher winter temperatures are affecting the logging industry
- After years of unrest, Commanders have reinvented their culture and shattered expectations
- When Will Renewables Pass Coal? Sooner Than Anyone Thought
Ranking
- Brands Our Editors Are Thankful For in 2024
- Charles Ponzi's scheme
- Christopher Meloni, Oscar Isaac, Jeff Goldblum and More Internet Zaddies Who Are Also IRL Daddies
- Inside Clean Energy: 6 Things Michael Moore’s ‘Planet of the Humans’ Gets Wrong
- Asian sesame salad sold in Wegmans supermarkets recalled over egg allergy warning
- Aviation leaders call for more funds for the FAA after this week's system failure
- Tom Brady, Justin Timberlake and More Stars Celebrate Father's Day 2023
- 8 Simple Hacks to Prevent Chafing
Recommendation
-
Kristin Cavallari's Ex Mark Estes Jokingly Proposed to This Love Island USA Star
-
Inside Clean Energy: Unpacking California’s Controversial New Rooftop Solar Proposal
-
Two Indicators: The 2% inflation target
-
Inside Clean Energy: A Michigan Utility Just Raised the Bar on Emissions-Cutting Plans
-
Jana Duggar Reveals She's Adjusting to City Life Amid Move Away From Farm
-
Covid-19 Shutdowns Were Just a Blip in the Upward Trajectory of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions
-
A recession might be coming. Here's what it could look like
-
Judge overseeing Trump documents case agrees to push first pretrial conference