Lawyers who sought to reverse 2020 election face Michigan hearing

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In Brief

• Michigan Attorney Discipline Board holds misconduct hearings.
• Lawyers include Gregory Rohl and Sidney Powell.
• 2020 suit sought to overturn Joe Biden’s Michigan win.
• U.S. Supreme Court upheld $150,000 sanctions in 2024.

DETROIT — Nearly 2,000 days after a group of lawyers attempted to reverse President Donald Trump’s loss in Michigan’s 2020 election, they’ve been quietly facing professional misconduct hearings on the 17th floor of an office building in downtown Detroit.

The proceedings, which began previously and continued Thursday, have been playing out with Trump, a Republican, back in the White House after he won in 2024 and as he has continued to spread unsubstantiated theories of fraud about his 2020 defeat.

About 10 people were in a small meeting room Thursday as a panel, appointed by Michigan’s Attorney Discipline Board, considered testimony about the unsuccessful 2020 suit that was publicly championed by Texas lawyer Sidney Powell. She once described the national legal push to challenge the election as releasing the “kraken.”

Michigan lawyer Gregory Rohl, who said he mainly does medical malpractice cases, testified about his decision to file the suit to change the outcome of a presidential election because the individuals pushing it needed someone with the ability to submit a suit in Michigan’s Eastern District court. Rohl had that access.

“I chose to file it and preserve the right to proceed forward,” Rohl said of his actions on Thanksgiving Eve 2020. “And I would do it again.”

Rohl, whose office is based in West Bloomfield, and Powell are two of the six lawyers who are the subjects of the ongoing professional misconduct hearings in Michigan.

In May 2023, the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, the prosecutorial arm of the Michigan Supreme Court, filed a formal complaint with the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board about the lawyers.

The commission said the lawyers involved in the November 2020 lawsuit engaged in conduct “that is contrary to justice, ethics, honesty or good morals,” according to the complaint.

The lawyers attempted to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s win in Michigan based on a bevy of murky theories and fraud claims that had been contradicted by election experts.

Their suit sought emergency relief, including orders requiring Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to transmit certified election results that stated that “President Donald Trump is the winner of the election.” It also sought the impounding of all “voting machines and software in Michigan for expert inspection.”

The suit seeking to overturn the election represented “a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process,” Detroit U.S. District Court Judge Linda Parker wrote in her August 2021 decision to require sanctions against the lawyers who worked on the litigation.

In February 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Powell and the other lawyers over $150,000 in sanctions they were ordered to pay for abusing the court system. The justices did not comment while leaving the sanctions in place.

Through the ongoing hearings, a three-person panel of the Michigan Attorney Discipline Board will decide whether the lawyers committed misconduct and whether there should be professional punishments, such as a public reprimand or license suspension.

In addition to Rohl and Powell, the actions of Georgia lawyer Lin Wood, New York lawyer Howard Kleinhendler, Washington, D.C., lawyer Julia Haller and Michigan lawyer Scott Hagerstrom are being scrutinized by the board.

Hagerstrom and Rohl were present in the hearing room on Thursday, while Haller appeared over a video connection.

Attorney Paul Stablein represented Wood at the hearing, while attorney Donald Campbell represented most of the others.

The Thursday morning proceeding focused on Rohl’s involvement. He testified that he was contacted by a lawyer from the firm Fraser Trebilcock on the night before Thanksgiving in 2020 about the election challenge.

A partner at the firm had nixed the filing, and supporters of the move were looking for someone else to submit it in Michigan’s Eastern District by midnight. Rohl said he and his secretary filed the lawsuit four minutes before midnight.

“It was like a James Bond movie,” Rohl said of the timing.

Kimberly Uhuru of the attorney grievance commission repeatedly asked Rohl on Thursday how much of the filing and exhibits Rohl had read before submitting the documents. Rohl said he “sped read” some portions of the suit.

Rohl also said his wife was bombarding him with information as he was reading the documents.

The hearing process is expected to continue on Friday and possibly on June 17.