Topline
The “Kraken” election fraud lawsuit brought by Sidney Powell and other far-right attorneys after the 2020 election faced yet another twist Wednesday, as the attorneys demanded a full recording of Monday’s sanctions hearing be released to the public after the court rules prohibiting the video from being shared resulted in Lin Wood facing potential sanctions for posting it on social media.
Key Facts
Attorney Donald Campbell filed an emergency motion requesting the court release video of the six-hour court hearing, which considered whether Powell, Wood and the other attorneys who sued Michigan seeking to overturn the election should be sanctioned for doing so.
Campbell argued the video should be made available to the public because the right-wing attorneys believed “most” media reports about the hearing “presented a narrative that counsel for plaintiffs believe to be incorrect,” and without a video the lawyers are “unable to refute what they believe to be public mischaracterizations.”
Video of the court hearing was made public on YouTube while the hearing was taking place, but court rules prohibit it from being recorded or shared except with the permission of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Wood shared on Telegram Monday a video clip from the hearing that was recorded and initially posted by a third party, which he later said he deleted from the platform on the advice of his counsel.
Michigan voter Robert Davis, one of the defendants in the case, asked the court Tuesday to sanction Wood and have him held in criminal contempt for violating court rules by sharing the video.
What To Watch For
Wood could be held in contempt of court or face potential discipline including debarment if the court rules in favor of Davis’ sanctions request, based on the court rules. In the sanctions hearing more broadly, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker has given the participants in the case two weeks to file additional briefs before she rules on whether the lawyers should be sanctioned. The judge signaled during the hearing that sanctions could be coming, as she repeatedly criticized their purported evidence of voter fraud in the case as “fantastical” and consisting of “levels of hearsay” and suggested the far-right attorneys filed affidavits alleging fraud without doing the necessary due diligence to ascertain whether those affidavits were factually correct.
Tangent
Wood has tried to evade sanctions in the Michigan lawsuit, arguing during the hearing Monday he had no participation in the case and was not aware he was signing onto it. The lawyer told the judge he had only agreed more generally to help Powell with her post-election lawsuits if she needed a trial lawyer, and claimed he “didn’t do anything with respect to this lawsuit.” (Powell claimed Wood had been told beforehand of the lawsuit, but said there may have been a “misunderstanding.”)
Chief Critic
City of Detroit Attorney David Fink, who filed one of the motions for sanctions in the case, told Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Monday he “can’t really be surprised” that Wood shared video of the hearing on Telegram, “because he has consistently flaunted the rules of our court.”
Key Background
The Michigan lawsuit is one of four that Powell and her co-counsel brought in battleground states alleging fraud, a legal strategy Powell described as “releas[ing] the Kraken” after the 1981 film The Clash of the Titans. All four lawsuits failed both in the lower courts and in the U.S. Supreme Court, however, with Parker dismissing the Michigan case as based on “nothing but speculation and conjecture.” In addition to the Michigan sanctions effort, Powell and the other ‘Kraken’ attorneys are also facing a separate disbarment effort in Michigan and other potential consequences in Arizona and Wisconsin, and Wood is under investigation by the State Bar of Georgia for his post-election conduct attempting to overturn the election.
Further Reading
With Giuliani’s Law License Suspended, Here Are The Other Trump Lawyers Who May Face Discipline Next (Forbes)
"wood" - Google News
July 15, 2021 at 06:11AM
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Sidney Powell And ‘Kraken’ Lawyers Call On Court To Release Michigan Hearing Recording As Lin Wood Faces Fresh Sanctions Threat - Forbes
"wood" - Google News
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