Sidney Powell and other Trump-affiliated lawyers will face legal penalties
Sidney Powell, L. Lin Wood and several other attorneys who pushed former President Donald J. Trump's false claims of a stolen election will face legal sanctions after the Supreme Court declined to hear their appeal.
The penalties — more than $130,000 in legal fees incurred by the election officials they sued, plus referrals to their state bar associations for possible disciplinary action — stem from a lawsuit the attorneys filed in Michigan in November 2020. The efforts of Trump's campaign and its allies to secure Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory. claim that state officials plotted to “fraudulently and illegally manipulate the vote count.”
A Michigan district court in December 2020 rejected the lawsuit's call for officials to decertify the state's true election results and falsely declare that Mr. Trump won Michigan. And in 2021, the same court imposed penalties on nine attorneys behind the lawsuit, saying those attorneys had “abused” the judicial process by filing claims that were not supported by law or evidence, by not making those claims before they were included in legal files and by 'postponing' the procedure.
“Despite the haze of confusion, commotion and chaos that counsel has deliberately attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is absolutely clear: Plaintiffs' attorneys have disregarded their oaths, flouted the rules and tried to undermine the integrity of the judiciary. ,” the court wrotesanctioning Ms. Powell, Mr. Wood and the other attorneys: Scott Hagerstrom, Julia Haller, Brandon Johnson, Stefanie Lynn Junttila, Howard Kleinhendler, Emily Newman and Gregory J. Rohl.
The lawyers have since appealed. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit the fines removed against Ms. Junttila and Ms. Newman and reduced fees slightly for most of the remaining attorneys (and lower for Mr. Wood). But it otherwise upheld the court's order.
And the Supreme Court on Tuesday certiorari denied, meaning it will not hear the case and the appeal court's ruling remains in effect. The judges give no reason for such denials.
said Mrs. Powell in a statement that the Supreme Court “allowed a dangerous precedent to stand that endangers any attorney representing an unpopular case or client.”
“It will make it much more difficult for conservatives in particular to find legal advice for any fight – but especially if it involves an election challenge,” she said. “And unfortunately that is exactly what the left wants.”
Ms. Powell is sometimes called the Kraken lawyer because of an interview in which she promised to “release the Kraken” in the form of allegedly overwhelming evidence of election fraud. Such evidence never materialized.
Mr Wood said in an interview that he was “very disappointed” by the High Court's denial but that he would pay the costs. He claimed, as he has done before, that he was not involved in the Michigan lawsuit and “didn't even know my name was on it until I was indicted.” The court rejected that claim in its 2021 ruling, saying Mr Wood had waited months to claim he was not involved and had declined the opportunity to say so under oath.
Ms. Powell and Mr. Wood have also faced other fallout related to efforts to help Mr. Trump overturn the election results. In July, Mr. Wood gave up his law license in Georgia in exchange for the cessation of disciplinary proceedings against him. And in October, Ms. Powell pleaded guilty to six felonies in Georgia.