L. Lin Wood, one of many key legal professionals who sought to overturn former President Donald J. Trump’s 2020 election loss and confronted potential disciplinary motion in Georgia in consequence, opted to surrender his legislation license within the state.
Mr. Wood formally requested that the State Bar of Georgia switch his legal professional standing to “retired” on July 4, based on a letter he posted on the messaging platform Telegram. The request was accredited, and two pending disciplinary prices in opposition to him had been dropped, based on a letter from Georgia’s Office of the General Counsel that Mr. Wood additionally posted to Telegram.
Mr. Wood, a former libel lawyer who grew to become an ardent supporter of Mr. Trump, has confronted his personal collection of authorized troubles since he joined Mr. Trump’s campaign to make use of the courtroom system to overturn the 2020 outcomes, echoing falsehoods that there was widespread voter fraud.
The Georgia State Bar wrote in paperwork filed with the state’s Supreme Court that Mr. Wood’s retirement had “achieved the goals of disciplinary action, including protecting the public and the integrity of the judicial system and the legal profession.”
Mr. Wood wrote on Telegram that the bar had “agreed to drop the disciplinary cases” if he retired from the career. In an interview with The Times, he mentioned that he had wished to retire sooner, however that authorized proceedings from instances filed across the 2020 election prevented him from doing so.
“I wish I had been able to do it two years ago,” he mentioned. “I was tired of practicing law. I’d had enough.”
The letters Mr. Wood posted on Telegram specified that his request was “unqualified, irrevocable and permanent” and that Mr. Wood couldn’t apply legislation in any state. He is, nevertheless, allowed to symbolize himself in future instances as long as he doesn’t current himself as a lawyer.
Mr. Wood had been a licensed legal professional in Georgia since 1977. His standing is now listed as “retired” on the State Bar web site, with no public self-discipline on document.
Mr. Wood introduced a federal lawsuit in search of to halt Georgia’s certification of the election in November 2020, which was blocked by a federal decide that yr. His title subsequently appeared in lawsuits difficult election leads to numerous different states.
The State Bar opened an investigation into Mr. Wood for disciplinary motion in 2021 and held a disciplinary trial earlier this yr. Mr. Wood sued the affiliation after it sought to acquire a psychological well being examination as a part of its investigation, however he misplaced in a federal appeals courtroom.
He was considered one of a number of attorneys who confronted $175,000 in sanctions and a suggestion for doable suspension or disbarment in Michigan for submitting a lawsuit {that a} decide decided in 2021 “threatened to undermine the results of a legitimately conducted national election.”
Mr. Wood claimed that he was not concerned in that lawsuit however that one other lawyer had added his title to paperwork filed in that case and a number of other others.
Last yr, Mr. Wood was requested to testify within the Fulton County district legal professional’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s makes an attempt to overturn the 2020 election leads to Georgia. There have been alerts that prices associated to that inquiry could possibly be issued in August.
Source: www.nytimes.com