Current:Home > MarketsLin Wood, attorney who challenged Trump's 2020 election loss, gives up law license-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Lin Wood, attorney who challenged Trump's 2020 election loss, gives up law license
View Date:2024-12-23 21:20:53
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! (9274)
Related
- Former Disney Star Skai Jackson Is Pregnant, Expecting First Baby With Her Boyfriend
- Refugee children’s education in Rwanda under threat because of reduced UN funding
- 'Fighting for her life': NYC woman shoved into subway train, search for suspect underway
- Brazil police conduct searches targeting intelligence agency’s use of tracking software
- NATO’s Rutte calls for more Western support for Ukraine, warns of Russian alliances
- Michigan football sign-stealing investigation: Can NCAA penalize Jim Harbaugh's program?
- More than 300,000 student borrowers given wrong repayment information, Education Department says
- They fled Russia's war in Ukraine. Now in Israel, they face another conflict.
- Shawn Mendes quest for self-discovery is a quiet triumph: Best songs on 'Shawn' album
- U.S., Israel say evidence shows Gaza militants responsible for deadly hospital blast
Ranking
- NASCAR Championship race live updates, how to watch: Cup title on the line at Phoenix
- He was rejected by 14 colleges. Then Google hired him.
- 5 mysteries and thrillers new this fall
- Democrats denounce Gov. Greg Abbott's razor wire along New Mexico-Texas border: 'Stunt' that will result in damage
- School workers accused of giving special needs student with digestive issue hot Takis, other abuse
- What Joran van der Sloot's confession reveals about Natalee Holloway's death
- The UAW's decade-long fight to form a union at VW's Chattanooga plant
- A stampede in Kenya leaves 4 dead and about 100 injured during an event marking an annual holiday
Recommendation
-
Quincy Jones' cause of death revealed: Reports
-
Dutch king and queen are confronted by angry protesters on visit to a slavery museum in South Africa
-
From Israel, writer Etgar Keret talks about the role of fiction in times of war
-
Research by Public Health Experts Shows ‘Damning’ Evidence on the Harms of Fracking
-
Mechanic dies after being 'trapped' under Amazon delivery van at Florida-based center
-
Northern Europe continues to brace for gale-force winds and floods
-
Brazil police conduct searches targeting intelligence agency’s use of tracking software
-
Affordable Care Act provisions codified under Michigan law by Gov. Whitmer as a hedge against repeal