Trump attorney gives up his law license as states weigh disciplining him for false election claims #Trump #attorney #law #license #states #weigh #disciplining #false #election #claims

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — 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 false claims that he defeated Democrat 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.

Parents of four transgender children in Georgia have filed a lawsuit challenging a Georgia law that bans most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for minors.

FILE - Jennifer Bowie, center left, and Aaron Baker, center right, become emotional while watching discussion of Senate Bill 140 — a bill that would prevent medical professionals from giving transgender children certain hormones or surgical treatment — on a video monitor at the state Capitol in Atlanta before it gets final approval in the Senate, March 21, 2023. On Saturday, July 1, Georgia’s new law banning gender confirmation surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for those under 18 takes effect. Part of a nationwide effort by conservatives to restrict transgender athletes, gender-affirming care and drag shows, Senate Bill 140 is perhaps the most high-profile of the state’s new laws. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

New laws taking effect on Saturday in Georgia include a ban on gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for those under 18.

FILE - Gov. Brian Kemp smiles as he stands next to a Rivian electric truck during a ceremony to announce that the electric truck maker plans to build a $5 billion battery and assembly plant east of Atlanta projected to employ 7,500 workers, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, in Atlanta. Kemp is escalating his attack on President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policy. The Republican governor spoke Tuesday, June 27, 2023 at the groundbreaking for a company that got more than $100 million in federal funding to refine graphite for electric batteries. But Kemp says Biden's infrastructure law wrongly puts the government's “thumb on the scale.” (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is escalating his attack on President Joe Biden’s electric vehicle policy. The Republican governor speaks Tuesday at the groundbreaking for a company that got more than $100 million in federal funding to refine graphite for electric batteries.

FILE - Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a news conference in Atlanta, Nov. 11, 2020. Raffensperger is scheduled to speak Wednesday, June 28, 2023, to federal prosecutors from the office of Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith, who has been looking into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn his 2020 election loss. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is scheduled to speak to federal prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s office.

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 in 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 President Joe 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 Biden’s victory.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP


#Trump #attorney #law #license #states #weigh #disciplining #false #election #claims

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