Attorney Lin Wood, who drew headlines for his claims about the 2020 election, announced that he’s agreed to retire from practicing law rather than be disbarred by the state of Georgia.
In a letter issued to the state bar of Georgia, Mr. Wood said he would “be permitted to transfer to Retired Status effective immediately.”
“The State Bar of Georgia has agreed to drop the disciplinary cases against me in return for my agreement to take the status of RETIRED. My retirement was not on my timing,” he continued. “It was not in the manner I would have preferred.”
Mr. Wood had, notably, represented Richard Jewell, a security guard who was wrongly suspected in the 1996 Olympic bombing case, as well as John and Patsy Ramsey in multiple high-profile defamation lawsuits, and he later represented former Covington high school student Nicholas Sandmann in his defamation lawsuits against a number of media outlets.
His profile was raised following the 2020 election, echoing claims made by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen and rigged to allow Joe Biden to win. At one point, he alleged that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp accepted bribes to throw the election in favor of Biden.
After the election, Mr. Wood’s popular Twitter account was suspended—along with a number of other prominent conservatives—for his claims about the 2020 election. He’s also faced a slew of lawsuits and legal threats. Following his suspension, Mr. Wood has amassed some 373,000 followers on Telegram.
The Georgia Bar held a disciplinary for Mr. Wood several weeks ago while considering disbarring him from practicing law in the state.
Earlier this year, a Georgia judge found that he violated the gag order five times and also fined him $1,000 for each alleged violation. “I can’t overlook the protracted and flagrant nature of the violation,” Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said.
It came after Mr. Wood’s former law partners Nicole Wade, Jonathan Grunberg, and Taylor Wilson filed a lawsuit against Mr. Wood for an alleged breach of contract, claiming that Mr. Wood engaged in “erratic, hostile, abusive, and threatening” behavior. Wood has denied those claims.
Other Legal Threats
Since the 2020 election, several other lawyers who were either retained by Trump or had promoted Trump have faced disbarment. For example, Jenna Ellis was censured by the Colorado Bar for making what it claimed were false statements about the 2020 election, while former Trump attorney John Eastman, a law dean at Chapman University, is facing disbarment in California.Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a longtime Trump ally and lawyer, had his license suspended following the election as well. Sidney Powell also is facing disbarment while she was sanctioned in Michigan over her claims of fraud.
Last month, Mr. Eastman’s lawyers argued in a hearing about his possible disbarment that he never intended to steal the election but was considering ways to delay electoral-vote counting so states could investigate allegations of voting improprieties. Mr. Eastman is facing 11 disciplinary charges in the State Bar Court of California.
In an interview after the hearing, Mr. Eastman said he had not been contacted by the Justice Department or summoned by the grand jury.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Mr. Eastman said of his advice to Mr. Trump, “It’s what lawyers are expected to do, kind of lay out what are the options we have before us to consider.”
“There are huge problems,” he added, saying he wanted to ensure that alleged voting irregularities did not influence the outcome of the election. “I think it’s important, quite beyond the partisan controversies over the former president ... to identify whether our election system has such vulnerabilities that we can’t trust it anymore.”
