[ad_1]
As the hearing opened Monday by videoconference, several lawyers sought to play down their role in the litigation. While Wood was among the seven lawyers in the first iteration of the trial last November, he stressed to the judge that he was not involved in its preparation.
“I played absolutely no role in drafting the complaint, just to be clear,” Wood told Parker. “I have not reviewed any of the documents relating to the complaint. My name was there, but I was not involved.
Parker asked Wood directly if he had given permission for his name to be on the costume.
“I don’t specifically recall being asked about the Michigan complaint, but I had generally indicated to Sidney Powell that if she needed a litigator in quotes, I would certainly be willing or available to help her,” Wood said. “Would I have refused to be included by name?” I do not believe that.
When questioned by the judge, Powell said she believed she had obtained Wood’s consent to put her name on the costume. “I can’t imagine I would put his name on a pleading without realizing that he gave me permission to do so. Could there have been a misunderstanding? It is certainly possible, ”she said.
An attorney for Newman, who has worked at the Trump White House, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Agency for World Media, also removed her from the Michigan litigation.
“My client was a contract lawyer working from home who spent maybe five hours on this case,” Thomas Buchanan said. “She wasn’t really involved … Her role is de minimis.”
While Powell and other attorneys were at the Zoom hearing, she dropped the screen for a while, drawing a slight rebuke from the judge.
“Could you hold the camera, Ms. Powell, please?” I wish everyone were here, ”Parker said.
The city of Detroit, which intervened as a defendant in the lawsuit to defend the election results, triggered the sanctions process about six months ago complaining that the case was frivolous and littered with untruths. The city motions called on Parker to impose monetary penalties on the attorneys in the case, require them to pay attorney fees for the city and other defendants in the case, and fire the attorneys for a possible cancellation procedure.
City attorney Herschel Fink said the initial filing of the case was muddled and unprofessional.
“What they filed in the first complaint in this case was an embarrassment to the legal profession,” Fink said. “It was sloppy. It was illegible and we didn’t care.
In a motion last December calling for the punishment of Powell, Wood and others, the town’s legal team wrote: “If the penalties are not deserved in this case, it’s hard to imagine a case where they would be. “
“In a case involving the election of the President of the United States, the parties and their attorneys should be held to the highest standards of factual and legal due diligence; instead, they raised false allegations and pursued unsustainable legal theories, ”argued the city. “It is time for this Court to send back a message: lies and frivolous allegations will not be tolerated. This abuse of our legal system deserves the harshest possible penalties. ”
Last December, Parker rejected the temporary restraining order that the prosecution sought to withdraw from presidential certification. The case was officially closed in mid-January. In Monday’s hearing, Parker continued to appear deeply skeptical of the pro-Trump lawyers’ case, referring to some of the witnesses they drafted as “so-called experts.”
The state of Michigan, the Democratic National Committee and the Michigan Democratic Party are also supporting efforts to punish pro-Trump lawyers involved in the lawsuit.
In a court file earlier this year, an attorney representing Powell, Wood and others who brought the case on behalf of potential Trump voters called the sanctions petition “baseless” and “procedurally inappropriate.”
Lawyer Stefanie Lambert Junttila called the campaign “an attempt to set a dangerous precedent that could deter future applicants for civil rights and the right to vote from taking their disputes to court.”
Some of the Powell-Wood team’s responses to the call for sanctions were as pugilistic as their actions in the aftermath of the election. Responding to claims that pro-Trump lawyers lied in their pleadings, Junttila stormed: “If this were just the rants of a five-man Detroit law firm, we would reject this behavior. like a pathetic lack of professionalism. But these are the filthy, media attention-hungry, libelous, and completely off-limits statements from the City of Detroit officials. “
Parker, a person appointed by President Barack Obama, last month ordered that every lawyer whose name appears in any file filed by plaintiffs in the case “be present” at the hearing, ultimately scheduled for Monday. However, last week, Powell, Wood and five other attorneys requested to appear only through other attorneys retained to represent them.
Parker rejected the request without explanation, but said pro-Trump lawyers could attend the hearing “virtually”.
The fallout from dozens of post-election lawsuits continues in other courts and jurisdictions, causing major professional headaches for many of the lawyers involved.
In February, the Georgia State Bar sent Wood a more than 1,600 page complaint proposing bar discipline against him. Many of the alleged misconduct cases cited stem from the flurry of election-related lawsuits, including that in Michigan. Wood filed an unsuccessful complaint against the bar in the process, but continues to fight efforts to punish him.
And last month a New York City court suspended Trump’s outspoken lawyer Rudy Giuliani from practicing law in that state following his statements in an election-related dispute. . Last week, a court in Washington, DC, made a parallel decision to suspend the license of Giuliani’s bar in the city until disciplinary proceedings in New York are resolved. Giuliani defended his conduct and said he plans to challenge the New York suspension at a hearing.
In addition, a Colorado federal judge is due to hold a hearing Friday on another petition for sanctions over a lawsuit brought by other pro-Trump lawyers last December claiming $ 160 billion in damages from the voting machine maker. Dominion Systems.
[ad_2]
Source link