Del. judge blocks Lin Wood as repercussions grow for lawyers who pressed election claims
1/12/21 REUTERS LEGAL 21:42:39
Copyright (c) 2021 Thomson Reuters
David Thomas
REUTERS LEGAL
January 12, 2021
Attorney L. Lin Wood speaks during a press conference on election results in Alpharetta, Georgia, U.S., December 2, 2020. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
(Reuters) - A Delaware state judge has blocked attorney L. Lin Wood from representing former Trump adviser Carter Page in a defamation lawsuit, the latest sign of professional consequences for lawyers who advanced election-related conspiracy claims.
In rescinding an order allowing Wood to appear for Page in the case, Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz focused on Wood's fruitless efforts to decertify President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia. Allowing the Atlanta-based lawyer to practice in his court would dishonor attorneys who practice law in a civil and ethical way, Karsnitz wrote.
"I acknowledge that I preside over a small part of the legal world in a small state," Karsnitz wrote. "However, we take pride in our bar."
Karsnitz noted that a Georgia court had described one of Wood's election cases there as "textbook frivolous litigation." According to federal court records, Wood was a plaintiff or an attorney of record in at least three lawsuits filed in Georgia challenging the electoral results there.
Wood's filings in other post-election cases have been riddled with errors, the judge wrote, and in other courts he failed to certify a complaint or serve the defendants.
While he based his decision on Wood's litigation conduct, Karsnitz also cited a series of increasingly conspiracy-laden and violent comments Wood has made online.
In the weeks since he was ordered to show cause on Dec. 18 as to why his permission to practice in Delaware Superior Court shouldn't be revoked, Wood has called for the arrest and execution of Vice President Mike Pence, the judge noted. Before he was banned from Twitter last week, Wood also accused U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts of being connected to child rape and murder, "claims ... which are too disgusting and outrageous to repeat," Karsnitz wrote.
The judge said he had "no doubt" that Wood's tweets played a role in inciting the riot by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol building as Congress was meeting to certify Biden's electoral victory.
The decision isn't the first time Wood's apparent embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theory has been cited in court filings. A sanctions motion by the city of Detroit, a defendant in another one of Wood's lawsuits contesting Biden's victory, also references Wood's now-deleted tweets about election fraud, communist infiltration and corrupt, traitorous judges.
Responses from Wood and the other attorneys in that lawsuit, including Sidney Powell, are due Tuesday.
Powell, a conservative Texas attorney and former federal prosecutor who has served as Wood's co-counsel in several post-election challenges, was separately sued by Dominion Voting Systems on Friday for $1.3 billion in damages for falsely claiming that Dominion helped rig the election.
Dominion's CEO, John Poulos, told National Public Radio Tuesday that the lawsuit was just the "first step" as the company considers further defamation claims.
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, Trump's current lawyer, faces possible expulsion from New York's voluntary state bar association after he reiterated election fraud claims at a rally just before the assault on the Capitol. He also urged Trump supporters to "have trial by combat" over the election results.
Wood did not respond to a request for comment. In the past, he has called Reuters "a Communist propaganda tool" whose reporters should "get out of our country."
The case is Page v. Oath Inc, Delaware Superior Court, No. S20C-07-030.
References
OATH INC
End of Document© 2024 Thomson Reuters. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.