L. Lin Wood (photo by Gage Skidmore)
Arrest this man for the murder of irony!
Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV was first to report that attorney Lin Wood, who spent the past three months howling conspiracy theories about vote fraud in Georgia, is under state investigation for possible illegal voting in the 2020 election. The attorney is now a resident of South Carolina. But for exactly how long is unclear.
“I have been domiciled in South Carolina for several months after purchasing property in the state in April,” Wood wrote to WSB reporter Justin Gray. Gray, who broke the story, posted the message online yesterday.
Gray writes that the message prompted the Secretary of State to open an investigation, but neglects to mention exactly how election officials got their hands on it, or when. If election officials saw the 10am tweet and launched an investigation in time to confirm it for the 6 o’clock news, that would be… quick. Odds that Wood and his allies bring this up as evidence of a media conspiracy: 100 percent.
“Gray confirmed Tuesday that the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office has launched an investigation into whether Wood was eligible to vote in Georgia, whether he broke the law by casting his ballot and whether he was actually a Georgia resident,” Gray writes.
Wood, who was recently instructed by the State Bar of Georgia to undergo a mental health evaluation if he wanted to keep his license to practice law, voted early in October. He did not vote in the January runoff, which he characterized as illegitimate.
In an email to NPR, Wood wrote “I own properties in Georgia and South Carolina. I changed my resident [sic?] to South Carolina on February 1, 2021.” But the date of his official residency change may not be relevant under Georgia law, which specifies that, “If a person removes to another state with the intention of making it such person’s residence, such person shall be considered to have lost such person’s residence in this state.”
Counterpoint: Lin Wood says on Telegram that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is a “loser” who “is going to jail.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Wood called in to a meeting of Republican bigwigs huddling up after the election to strategize about how to overturn the results.
According to two GOP insiders, the conference room at the Georgia GOP headquarters was crammed with a Who’s Who of the pro-Trump crowd seeking to undermine Georgia’s election. Among them was Donald Trump Jr. and state GOP chair David Shafer.
Lin Wood was not. He was on speaker phone. And the last item of the meeting’s to-do list involved arranging for a private jet to fly to South Carolina, pick him up and ferry him back to Georgia so he could help with the legal battle.
Spoiler Alert: Wood did not help with the legal battle. In fact, his antics appear to have depressed Republican turnout for the runoff and may have helped get Democratic Senators Warnock and Ossoff elected.
But we can’t help but notice that Wood filed two election cases asserting standing as a Georgia voter.
“As a qualified elector and registered voter, Plaintiff has Article III standing to bring this action,” he wrote in a November 13 complaint. (He didn’t.) And on December 18, he told the court, “Plaintiff L. LIN WOOD, JR. is sui juris and a resident of Fulton County, Georgia. He is a qualified, registered “elector” who possesses all of the qualifications for voting in the State of Georgia. Plaintiff voted in person during the Presidential Election and has or will vote in the runoff election in-person.”
(More like sui generis, TBH.)
Remember that December 18 filing? It was the one where he promised “plenty of perjury.”
Well. Yes. Hmmmmm.
EXCLUSIVE: Attorney Lin Wood under investigation over whether he voted illegally in November, officials say [WSB-TV]
Pro-Trump Election Conspiracist Lin Wood Under Investigation For Illegal Voting [NPR]
The Jolt: The Senate committee Ossoff and Warnock are not on [AJC]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.