Lawyer Lin Wood, who had filed election fraud lawsuits on behalf of ex-President Trump, has been asked by the State Bar of Georgia to take a mental health evaluation if he wants to continue practicing the law. Wood has refused to comply with the instruction. He accused the State Bar of taking a politically biased action and warned that he would legally fight the organization.
“If the State Bar of Georgia formally requests that I submit to a mental health examination in order to maintain my license to practice law, I will respectfully decline to do so. I am of sound mind and I have not violated any rule of professional conduct… I have done nothing wrong. I have only exercised my right of free speech. I will not allow the State Bar to persecute me for doing so and thereby violate my Constitutional rights,” he said in a Telegram post.
Wood and many other lawyers have recently been targeted for supporting Donald Trump
This is something that clearly goes against the profession’s ethos. A lawyer is obligated to defend his client. To punish him for honoring his legal duty would dismantle the foundation of the American legal system.
Democrats have filed numerous requests to disbar several of Trump’s lawyers, with many of them quitting after receiving threats. For example, last November, the lawyers from the Porter Wright firm withdrew from representing Trump. Similarly, lawyers from the Jones Day firm were also targeted by anti-Trump forces.
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In early January, a state judge from Delaware blocked Wood from representing Carter Page, an ex-advisor to Trump. The city of Detroit also filed a motion against him and Sidney Powell for challenging the results of the 2020 election.
The motion sought to ban them from practicing law in the eastern district of Michigan and charge them with fines. It accused both attorneys of using the case “to spread their false messages.” Additionally, Twitter blacklisted Powell, accusing her account of being connected to the QAnon movement.
Another lawyer being persecuted for having ties with Trump is Rudy Giuliani. On Jan. 12, a private liberal arts college in Middlebury revoked the honorary degree it had given Giuliani. This was the reaction to an article in the campus newspaper alleging Giuliani had been “peddling false claims of voter fraud.”
There have also been calls to disbar him. A legal advocacy group said that Giuliani abused the judicial process and engaged in deceit. Giuliani dismissed the accusation, declaring that he acted ethically during his time representing Trump for challenging the Nov. 3 election results.
In an interview with New York WABC 770 AM radio, legal expert Alan Dershowitz criticized the attempts to disbar Giuliani.
“It’s McCarthyism. I grew up during McCarthyism when the lawyers were being disbarred for representing clients that people didn’t like… Rudy is a lawyer. And that’s what he is supposed to do. And if his client says: ‘Challenge the election,’ he challenges the election… If you don’t agree with his analysis, answer it in the court of public opinion. But don’t disbar him,” he said in the interview.
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