Lin Wood, a high-profile Georgia lawyer who embraced and promoted former President Donald Trump’s bogus 2020 election claims, told the state bar he was retiring amid disciplinary probes.
“I understand that this request is unqualified, irreversible and permanent,” Wood said in a letter to the State Bar of Georgia seeking to be transferred to “Retired Status.”
“I further understand and acknowledge that if granted Retired Status I am prohibited from practicing law in this state and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission,” he wrote in the letter, which he posted on his Telegram account.
Officials in Georgia had been weighing whether to disbar Wood —who had been involved in legal challenges seeking to overturn the results of the last presidential election — holding a disciplinary trial earlier this year.
Wood sued the state bar in 2022, claiming the bar’s request that he undergo a mental health evaluation as part of its probe violated his constitutional rights, but a federal appeals court tossed that ruling, saying Wood failed to show there was “bad faith” behind the request.
Because he was the subject of disciplinary proceedings, Wood needed permission from the bar’s Office of the General Counsel to resign.
In an email responding to questions from NBC News, Wood said Wednesday that “the State Bar of Georgia approved my request and I am now officially RETIRED.”
As a result, he said, the bar’s “disciplinary proceedings against me will be dismissed.”
“I publicly announced my desire to retire from the practice of law in 2020. So now I am retired!” he added.
That same year, 2020, was when Wood made comments bolstering Trump’s false claims of fraud while also labeling then-Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor” who should be executed.
In addition to disciplinary proceeding in Georgia, Wood was also one of nine lawyers named in a pending complaint in Michigan over a lawsuit challenging the 2020 election results that a judge found was “frivolous.”
He was also called last year to testify before the grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, that was investigating whether Trump and his allies interfered with the 2020 election in the state. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has indicated that charges stemming from the probe could come in early August.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Wood told The New York Times last year. “I’ve got nothing to hide, so I’ll go down and talk to them,” he added.
Wood’s resignation brings an end to his 45-year legal career. He first rose to fame in the 1990s when he represented Richard Jewell, a security guard who was falsely accused of being involved in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta.
Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
