Federal Judge Refers Trump’s ‘Kraken’ Lawyers To Bar Associations For Discipline

I have been calling for this for months. Thank you Judge Linda Parker.

The New York Times reports, Judge Orders Sanctions Against Pro-Trump Lawyers Over Election Lawsuit:

A federal judge in Michigan on Wednesday night ordered sanctions to be levied against nine pro-Trump lawyers, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood, ruling that a lawsuit laden with conspiracy theories that they filed last year challenging the validity of the presidential election was “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”

In her decision, Judge Linda V. Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit ordered the lawyers to be referred to the local legal authorities in their home states for possible suspension or disbarment.

Declaring that the lawsuit should never have been filed, Judge Parker wrote in her 110-page order that it was “one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” but another to deceive “a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed.”

“This is what happened here,” she wrote.

[T}he Michigan lawsuit, filed in late November, was one of four legal actions, collectively known as the “Kraken” suits, that Ms. Powell filed in courts around the country, claiming that tabulation machines made by Dominion Voting Systems were tampered with by a bizarre set of characters, such as the financier George Soros or Venezuelan intelligence agents. In the suits, she complained without merit that those conspirators began a complicated, covert plot to digitally flip votes from President Donald J. Trump to his opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Judge Parker’s order came about a month after a marathon hearing during which she repeatedly pressed Ms. Powell and her colleagues about how — or even whether — they had verified the statements of witnesses who filed sworn statements making claims of widespread fraud and tampering with voting machines. Several times, Judge Parker expressed astonishment at the lawyers’ answers, telling them they had a responsibility to perform “minimal due diligence” and calling some of the lawsuit’s claims “fantastical.”

In her decision, Judge Parker accused Ms. Powell, who is based in Dallas, and Mr. Wood, who is based in Atlanta, of abusing “the well-established rules” of litigation by making claims that were backed by neither the law nor evidence, but were instead marked by “speculation, conjecture and unwarranted suspicion.”

“This case was never about fraud,” Judge Parker wrote. “It was about undermining the people’s faith in our democracy and debasing the judicial process to do so.”

David Fink, a lawyer for the City of Detroit, called the ruling “a powerful message to attorneys everywhere.”

“Follow the rules, stick to the truth or pay a price,” Mr. Fink said. “Lawyers will now know that there are consequences for filing frivolous lawsuits.”

Judge Parker’s order, which said Ms. Powell and her colleagues had “scorned their oath, flouted the rules and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary,” was the latest legal setback for the embattled group of lawyers who emerged from the postelection period as the most die-hard of Mr. Trump’s supporters.

The former president and his allies filed more than 60 lawsuits challenging the election last year, losing nearly all of them. None were more outrageous — or lacking in proof — than those filed by Ms. Powell, positing a conspiracy of international intelligence operatives manipulating the election results by hacking into voting machines.

Dominion ultimately sued Ms. Powell and others, including Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, for defamation, accusing them of initiating “a viral disinformation campaign” about the election and seeking damages of more than $1 billion. Those lawsuits were allowed to proceed to trial this month after a federal judge in Washington denied Ms. Powell’s and Mr. Giuliani’s motions to dismiss.

The Washington Post adds, Federal judge in Michigan orders pro-Trump lawyers disciplined over lawsuit seeking to overturn 2020 election (excerpt):

[Judge Parker] ordered the lawyers to pay the attorney’s fees for their opponents in the case — the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan. She also wrote that she will require them to attend continuing legal education classes. And she referred the group to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, as well as attorney disciplinary committees in the states where each attorney is licensed, which could initiate proceedings that could result in the lawyer’s being disbarred.

[T]he order in Michigan came as judges around the country have been weighing how to hold accountable lawyers who used the courts to advance flimsy challenges to the election.

In June, a panel of judges in New York suspended the law license of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, arguing that former president Donald Trump’s personal lawyer had “communicated demonstrably false and misleading statements” that amounted to an ongoing threat to the public. Giuliani’s lawyers have said they are confident his license will be restored after a hearing.

This month, a judge in Colorado disciplined two other lawyers who had sought to file a class-action suit on behalf of every American voter alleging a mass conspiracy to steal the election.

[In] her opinion Wednesday, Parker wrote that the group had violated legal rules that prohibit attorneys from clogging the court systems with frivolous motions or from filing information that is not true.

“Plaintiffs’ counsel’s politically motivated accusations, allegations, and gamesmanship may be protected by the First Amendment when posted on Twitter, shared on Telegram, or repeated on television,” she wrote. “The nation’s courts, however, are reserved for hearing legitimate causes of action.”

[L]awyers for the city of Detroit, as well as Attorney General Dana Nessel (D), acting on behalf of the state’s governor and secretary of state, had moved for the lawyers to be disciplined.
“It has remained abundantly clear from the outset that this lawsuit aimed to do nothing more than undermine our democratic process,” Nessel said in a statement. “I appreciated Judge Parker’s thoroughness in the hearing last month, and I appreciate the unmistakable message she sends with this ruling — those who vow to uphold the Constitution must answer for abandoning that oath.”

“This ruling sends a powerful message to attorneys everywhere — follow the rules, stick to the truth, or pay a price,” said David Fink, an attorney for the city of Detroit. “This ruling means that attorneys can be held accountable for using the courts to broadcast false information, and, hopefully, it lets the world know that there was no basis for this lawsuit, and the big lie that this election was stolen has been rejected.”

Well, mostly NOT here in Arizona, where our feckless Arizona State Bar does not want to offend the MAGA/QAnon GQP state legislators promoting Trump’s Big Lie with their GQP sham “fraudit,” and their well connected attorneys. Complaints against 9 attorneys involved in election lawsuits dismissed by Arizona Bar; 12 still pending (March 15, 2021):

The Arizona State Bar has dismissed complaints against nine lawyers who represented President Donald Trump’s campaign, the Republican Party or its supporters in challenging the results of last year’s election.

Several other attorneys filed the complaints, charging that the lawyers behind a flurry of litigation disputing President Joe Biden’s victory here or aspects of the election process had violated professional standards by filing frivolous cases with demonstrably false information. All of the election challenges were dismissed, in many instances after the judges themselves lambasted the allegations as meritless.

The complaints named 21 lawyers and the [Ducey] Supreme Court appointed Lisa Daniel Flores, a retired superior court judge and a former state elections director, to review them.

The bar confirmed on Monday it had dismissed the charges against four attorneys — Thomas Basile, Brett Johnson, Kory Langhofer [the GQP’s attorney] and Eric Spencer — who were involved at different points in representing the Trump campaign and state and national Republican parties in one lawsuit against election officials.

* * *
Flores said the case had good faith, factual basis [clearly it did not, that’s why it was dismissed] and that the move to dismiss the case based on the ongoing statewide vote count made clear that the attorneys did not violate rules of professional conduct.

Langhofer also was accused of violating rules of professional conduct when he did not disclose that his expert witness was also his business partner.

Flores said that was Langhofer’s choice as a matter of trial strategy and she did not perceive it as misconduct. [She would be the only one.] The bar also dismissed a complaint against Chris Ford, who had made filings in the case.

The bar has also closed complaints involving Erick Kaardal, David Spilsbury, William F. Mohrman and Gregory Erickson, who filed a lawsuit to vacate the presidential election but later moved to dismiss their own case.

* * *

Flores wrote that the case raised a number of concerns, some of which the lawyers could have addressed with even cursory research.

But she noted the lawyers chose to dismiss the lawsuit themselves just a few days after filing it.

“Had you proceeded with the litigation and further burdened the court, I may have decided to recommend formal discipline,” she wrote to Spilsbury.

Complaints against the 12 other lawyers named in early complaints are still pending. The complaints had also named some prominent attorneys in the Trump campaign’s efforts to reverse the election results, including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood.

The Arizona State Bar now has the opinion and referral for discipline from Judge Linda V. Parker of the Federal District Court in Detroit, and the bar has a duty to act. It should have disciplined all of the unethical attorneys in Arizona in nine cases filed by Donald Trump’s “stop the steal” lawyers as Judge Parker forcefully argues.

Other attorneys named in the complaints that are still pending include Sue Becker, Julia Zuszua Haller, Brandon Johnson, Howard Kleinhenbdler, Alexander Kolodin, Lee Miller, Emily P. Newman, Christopher Viskovic, Dennis I. Wilenchik and John “Jack” D. Wilenchik.

Definitely disbar these lawyers, and reopen the file on Kory Langhofer. These guys have been getting away with this kind of shit for years in our GQP culture of corruption her in Arizona.