Michigan’s top leaders push for disbarment of Trump’s lawyers who claimed election fraud

(The Center Square) – Michigan’s top three elected officials have asked for the disbarment of four attorneys who filed unsuccessful lawsuits claiming there was widespread election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, three Democrats, filed complaints Monday with Attorney Grievance Commissions in both Michigan and Texas, asserting attorneys Greg Rohl, Scott Hagerstrom, Stefanie Junttila, and Sidney Powell should be disbarred.

Nationally, Sidney Powell is the highest-profile attorney, best known for challenging election results in multiple swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, describing the lawsuits as the “Kraken” — a legendary sea monster.

One lawsuit, King v. Whitmer, sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Michigan, which he won by roughly 154,000 votes. The lawsuit, which ultimately failed, mostly repeated debunked conspiracy theories and incorrect information.

All of the lawsuits failed.

U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker of Michigan’s Eastern District described one of the Michigan lawsuits as seeking to “ignore the will of millions of voters.”

The “lawsuit seems to be less about achieving the relief Plaintiffs seek – as much of that relief is beyond the power of this Court – and more about the impact of their allegations on People’s faith in the democratic process and their trust in our government,” Parker wrote.

Stephen Klein is a partner at Barr & Klein PLLC in Washington D.C. who practices First Amendment and election law.

“I think it’s very inappropriate for two of the defendants in the case — Gov. Whitmer and Secretary Benson — to file bar complaints while this is playing out,” Klein told The Center Square in a phone interview.

“Seeking permanent disbarment of an attorney, not on the basis of court filings, but on the broader implication of those court filings, I believe is a step too far,” Klein said.

“You don’t file 60-plus lawsuits across the country and lose all of them, and have much of a leg to stand on,” Klein said.

Klein argued that Judge Parker is qualified to handle this issue of whether the attorneys will be sanctioned, and added many states prohibit attorneys from filing bar complaints against other attorneys while they’re in litigation “precisely because it’s a distraction.”

“The complaint itself, and I’ve only looked over one of them, is very chilling,” Klein said. “It reads like a sloppy vendetta and has really nasty implications — because it not only focuses on the filings themselves for the alleged dishonesty of the attorneys but the supposed broader implications of those filings, such as the very idea that the election was stolen.”

Nessel blamed the attorneys for “fuel[ing] the fire … that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.”

“These attorneys filed a complaint based on falsehoods, used their law license in an attempt to disenfranchise Michigan voters and undermine the faith of the public in the legitimacy of the recent presidential election,” Nessel said in a statement.

“In doing so, they violated their oath and the ethical rules to which they are bound, abused the court system, and compromised the administration of justice — an important foundation of our civil society and the very bulwark of our democratic institutions. Anything short of disbarment would be an injustice to the American people.”

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