Pro-Trump Lawyer Insists Powell Lasso’d Him Into Bogus Election Lawsuit Without His Knowledge

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES - NOV 19: Attorney Sidney Powell speaks during a news conference with Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, about lawsuits contesting the results of the presidential electio... WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES - NOV 19: Attorney Sidney Powell speaks during a news conference with Rudy Giuliani, lawyer for U.S. President Donald Trump, about lawsuits contesting the results of the presidential election at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Thursday Nov. 19, 2020. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

A handful of Republican lawyers involved with litigation around the 2020 election have claimed that Trump diehard Sidney Powell added their names to her clownish election lawsuits without their permission, or inflated their involvement in the Big Lie cause.

A lawyer for enthusiastic conspiracy theorist Lin Wood, who was named in Powell’s infamous Michigan lawsuit, insisted in an interview with the Guardian this week that his client didn’t draft the complaint and didn’t sign it. He “did not authorize anyone to put his name on it,” Wood’s lawyer, Paul Stablein, told the Guardian. Wood also recently accused Powell of using her lawsuits as a grift.

As the Guardian notes, Wood is one of several lawyers who have distanced themselves from Powell’s sideshows, saying they were not involved.

Derrick Van Orden, a failed GOP congressional candidate who was named in Powell’s election suit in Wisconsin, claimed via Twitter on Dec. 1 last year that he didn’t know his name was on the suit and only found out through social media.

On top of that, some of the lawyers who had given Powell permission to name them in her suits are now claiming that she overinflated the extent of their involvement.

Emily Newman and Gregory Rohl, two attorneys who are now facing sanctions over the dead-end Michigan lawsuit, insisted to the judge that they barely had a role in the litigation. Rohl claimed he read Powell’s entire 830-page initial complaint in just “well over an hour” and didn’t make any changes to it.

Powell did not respond to TPM’s inquiry about the claims.

Powell had used the other lawyers’ names to hype her lawsuits and boost fundraising efforts for her “Defending the Republic” nonprofit, which she claimed had a team of top-notch attorneys who would “protect the integrity of elections in the United States.”

That nonprofit and Powell’s political action committee with the same name are under federal investigation, according to the Guardian and the Washington Post, which was the first outlet to report the probe on Wednesday. The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia slapped the groups with a grand jury subpoena in September, the Post reported.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. Well in other fighting back news the Stupidest Person On the Internet and his brother are being sued by two Georgia election workers.

    The lawsuit alleges that the Pundit’s “lies” about Freeman and Moss “devastated” their reputations and “instigated a deluge of intimidation, harassment, and threats that has forced them to change their phone numbers, delete their online accounts, and fear for their physical safety.” the suit says. Freeman went into hiding.

    https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/two-georgia-election-workers-sue-gateway-pundit-website-over-false-fraud-allegations/article_2619f7b7-575f-58fe-965e-ee3f4d118dc1.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_St._Louis_Post-Dispatch&fbclid=IwAR3xlVw9ZgHlvLP6iw9X6OgAlEf6i8SLJ1FJ4ttHaqhgsgBqZsFAGbZINkE

  2. That’s what you call a Dumb Lawyer.

  3. They were all standing with the Kraken back in the day, and now they want people to believe they were included without their acknowledge?

  4. With the exception of the guy who said he found out about this through social media (presuming he’s telling the truth), the lawyers are all probably lying. Lawyers do not allow their name to be attached to a legal brief without their permission, as doing that connects them to a case where they have no interest…any actions that come from it fall on them as well. It’s also wrong to put a lawyer in a case without their consent, press sure the Bar takes action if you attach someone to your case unknowingly.

    These lawyers read the briefs and/or agreed to have their name attached…now that there are consequences they are scrambling to say that they weren’t involved. They deserve the sanctions coming their way, because they were participating in all of this stuff and onboard with stealing the election.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

56 more replies

Participants

Avatar for discobot Avatar for paulw Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for douglashh Avatar for mondfledermaus Avatar for scottnatlanta Avatar for DuckmanGR Avatar for drriddle Avatar for lastroth Avatar for nikta Avatar for rickjones Avatar for tiowally Avatar for cgrutherford Avatar for dannydorko Avatar for libthinker Avatar for godwit Avatar for lanabill Avatar for occamscoin Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for dogselfie Avatar for LeeHarveyGriswold Avatar for Ethics_Gradient Avatar for geographyjones Avatar for Pluckingenius

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: