Lin Wood Shows Up On Mercer Law School Call To Defend Himself, Doesn't Go Great

The lawyer crashed a Zoom call about his future with the school.

(Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

As recently as last year, Mercer Law School was honoring Lin Wood for his professional accomplishments. Now, the school is understandably trying to distance itself from an attorney who used his now banned Twitter and now defunct Parler accounts to suggest that Chief Justice Roberts is part of a pedophile cult and to advocate for the execution of the vice president.

One potential move that’s gaining traction is returning Wood’s million-dollar gift to the school and stripping his name from the moot courtroom at the school. Dean Cathy Cox held a Zoom call to discuss the campaign with the Mercer Law community. Wood decided to join in the festivities…

By the way, if you aren’t following Charles Bethea for your Lin Wood news, you’re missing out. The New Yorker journalist has personally kept up with Wood throughout recent events and has a new article about his correspondence with the lawyer. After dismissing the Capitol riot as an Antifa hoax and repeatedly betting Bethea that Trump would be reinaugurated… before he, you know, wasn’t:

The next morning, Trump finally flew off. Wood was among the millions who watched. What did he think now? The lawyer answered with a question: “What do you make of the gold-trimmed flags behind him when he spoke?” The caller noted that there were seventeen of them—much to the delight of the QAnon press corps. (“Q” is the seventeenth letter of the alphabet.) “I did not count them,” Wood wrote of the flags. “I was just enjoying the beauty of the gold trim.” And he added, in another text, referring to Biden’s speech, “Waiting for it to end so I can play with my puppies!”

The gold-trimmed flags is a hallmark of the ongoing stupidity of the “sovereign citizen” legal theory that courts have no jurisdiction if they use gold-fringed flags because that means they are admiralty courts. That is, in fact, not what gold-fringed flags mean. The fringe theory is typically fringe theory among misguided pro se litigants. An accomplished attorney raising the issue is distressing.

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In any event, Wood joined the call and for the most part dismissed criticism by citing his First Amendment rights and stressing that the fact that the claims he’s made in the election lawsuits that he’s backed have never been evaluated because the cases are getting kicked on the basis of standing. That’s not really true, as the “evidence” he’s talking about has shown up in other cases and judges have dismissed the claims as meritless. It also leans heavily on the idea that he’s only filed two Georgia cases — an assertion he makes in an effort to maintain the argument that he can’t be sanctioned in the Michigan lawsuit he put his name on because he didn’t “sign” the complaint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z8zRN5DdHQ

There’s a lot here but let’s just take one passage to give a flavor of the conversation. Here he is defending his Tweet about executing Pence:

Just in the past three months our government has noted publicly that we still utilize firing squads. Treason has as one penalty a firing squad. I believe as a matter of opinion, based on fact, that Vice President Pence has committed treason. I have documented evidence that he also did that in 2017 with Rod Rosenstein. Treason is treason. For me to make a point of how strongly I felt about the fact that he was guilty of treason, I used rhetorical hyperbole suggesting — not that somebody go out and shoot him — but that he be subject to the penalty that the law imposes for treason. I don’t control firing squads only the government does.

So, a shorter Lin Wood:

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Wood engaged the arguments against the school continuing to honor him politely but forcefully, and yet it’s difficult to think his presentation helped his case. If anything, he underscored all the reasons that a law school would want to distance itself. He may have a right to say what he said and do what he did, but Mercer isn’t obligated to tie its reputation to any of it.

But he’s definitely got himself some devoted fans. The comments on the YouTube video are all supportive, hailing him as “a true and honorable hero for our country.” I got an unhinged email from a Wood supporter this morning ranting about how the fraud will be proven if only people would look at the “1000’s of affidavits, ballot dumps of 100,000 in the middle of the night all for Biden, irregularities observed by poll workers, ballots being run through multiple times, cyber security experts showing data impossibilities, foreign interference by at least 5 countries.” The affidavits range from laughable to crazy, the “dumps” are how precincts are reported, the poll workers discussed have been interviewed and discounted, the multiple ballot run theory got laughed at by even the Republicans looking into it, the cyber security experts have been uncovered as cranks with no valid expertise and faulty methodologies, and while foreign powers try to interfere, their actions are focused on sowing disinformation — like promoting exactly these stupid conspiracy theories.

There’s a whole ecosphere of fake “evidence” and manufactured support for these people to lean on. It actually walks the fine line between hilarious and sad.

But in any event, Mercer has a choice to make — is a million dollars enough to anchor the school to a lawyer repeating debunked theories and offering dubious legal analysis that a judge recently branded a “toxic stew of mendacity”?

Speaking of anchors… did you hear the one about the gold-trimmed flags and maritime court jurisdiction?

A Trump Holdout in Atlanta [New Yorker]

Earlier: Yikes, It’s Not Even Been A Year Since Law Schools Were Honoring Lin Wood
Pressure Mounting On Law School To Rename Lin Wood Classroom
Citing Lin Wood’s ‘Toxic Stew Of Mendacity,’ Delaware Judge Tosses Him Off Carter Page Suit


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.