Appeals Court Rules Decisively Against Trump Stooge Lin Wood

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A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has rejected an attempt by infamous far-right attorney Lin Wood to stop the State Bar of Georgia from proceeding with its push to examine his mental health amid an investigation into his fitness to maintain his ability to practice law.

Wood was involved in some of the wide-ranging post-election litigation challenging the outcome of the 2020 presidential race, although none of this litigation actually went anywhere in terms of actually undoing the outcome (meaning Joe Biden’s victory). Last August, federal Judge Linda Parker granted a motion from authorities in Michigan for sanctions against attorneys including Wood and Sidney Powell in connection to their involvement in a Michigan lawsuit that sought to get Biden’s election win in the state overturned. Wood, meanwhile, brought his own lawsuit against Georgia legal authorities in an attempt to stop the push for a mental health exam, and a Georgia-based federal judge eventually rejected Wood’s efforts. The appeals court upheld the lower-level judge’s stance.

The three-judge panel working on the case found no sufficient evidence for any of a series of four arguments Wood presented, including an allegation that the state bar pushed for a mental health exam as “a form of retaliation against Mr. Wood for the exercise of his protected free speech rights.” The judges said that particular claim was “a conclusory, legal assertion, so it cannot satisfy Wood’s burden of proof.” Law&Crime asked Wood for comment about these developments in his efforts to stop the mental health exam push, to which Wood claimed: “The Bar found NO probable cause existed for the request for a mental health exam… It was just propaganda intended to smear me.”

Wood also failed in an attempt to “disqualify” the federal judge who previously dealt with his lawsuit targeting the bar, as also explained by Law&Crime. Facts relevant to Wood’s claims about that judge “concern the district judge’s knowledge of Wood that he gained in his judicial capacity: Wood has not alleged that the district judge harbors personal bias against him born of an extrajudicial source,” the three-judge appeals court panel noted. Read more at this link.

The Georgia state bar isn’t the only state legal authority to take action against individuals involved in post-election pushes against Biden’s win. In Texas, the state bar’s Commission for Lawyer Discipline has brought court cases against figures including Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) over the infamous post-election case filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that targeted the election outcomes in four states Biden won. The commission has stated in court that claims in the post-election litigation “were not supported by any charge, indictment, judicial finding and/or credible or admissible evidence.” Consequences for Paxton could — in theory — include disbarment. And longtime Trump ally Rudy Giuliani has been suspended from practicing law in New York and Washington, D.C., in connection to his involvement in conspiracy-fueled campaigns against the presidential election outcome.