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AG Nessel, Gov. Whitmer, Secretary Benson Seek Disbarment of Attorneys for Pushing Election Fraud Narrative

LANSING – Michigan’s top three elected officials are asking for the disbarment of four attorneys who pushed a false narrative of widespread election fraud in legal proceedings before multiple judges and courts – including the nation’s highest judicial body, the U.S. Supreme Court – in their frivolous lawsuit, King v. Whitmer.  

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office on Thursday filed motions for sanctions in federal court against the same four lawyers, Michigan attorneys Greg Rohl, Scott Hagerstrom and Stefanie Junttila, along with Texas attorney Sidney Powell.  

Today, Nessel joined with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson – all three licensed attorneys themselves – in filing complaints with the Attorney Grievance Commission of the State of Michigan and the State Bar of Texas, asking that the attorneys be disbarred and lose their privilege to practice law in those states. 

“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, and lent credence to untruths that led to violence and unrest,” Nessel said. “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.” 

“The 2020 general election was the most secure in our nation’s history, and these lawyers abused their authority by filing meritless, frivolous lawsuits for the sole purpose of undermining public faith in the election,” said Benson. “They must be held accountable for this unprecedented attack on our democracy and prevented from replicating such harm in the future.” 

Court filings in King v. Whitmer, which sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Michigan, were legally frivolous and supported by false evidence. The court swiftly denied the plaintiffs any relief on numerous grounds. Similar lawsuits were filed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Arizona, and all failed. Attorneys Powell and Junttila went so far as to brazenly misrepresent facts in a filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, claiming that the Michigan Legislature had endorsed competing slates of Republican and Democratic electors, when in reality, the Legislature’s leaders stood by the slate of electors chosen by Michigan’s voters. 

Click here to view a copy of the complaint against Hagerstrom.  

Click here to view a copy of the complaint against Junttila.  

Click here to view a copy of the complaint against Rohl.  

Due to the State Bar of Texas’s filing requirements, complaints against Powell were filed separately. Click here to view all three complaints

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