Pro-Trump lawyer removed from Dominion case after leaking documents to cast doubt on 2020 election
Pro-Trump lawyer removed from Dominion case after leaking documents to cast doubt on 2020 election
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A pro-Trump lawyer who is facing felony charges in Michigan of improperly accessing voting equipment following the 2020 presidential election has been disqualified from representing a prominent funder of election conspiracy theorists who is being sued by Dominion Voting Systems.
Michigan lawyer Stefanie Lambert has been representing Patrick Byrne, the founder of Overstock.com, in a defamation lawsuit brought against him by Dominion, one of the main targets of conspiracy theories over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss.
Lambert was disqualified from the case on Tuesday after admitting to releasing thousands of confidential discovery documents that she had agreed to keep private.
Due to Lambert’s actions, the documents that all parties “had agreed to keep confidential, have now been shared widely in the public domain,” U.S. District Court Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya wrote in a 62-page opinion.
“Lambert’s repeated misconduct raises the serious concern that she became involved in this litigation for the sheer purpose of gaining access to and publicly sharing Dominion’s protected discovery,” wrote Upadhyaya.
Lambert’s lawyer, Daniel Hartman, said by phone Wednesday that Lambert would be “appealing the decision.”
“We are appealing,” Byrne wrote in a text to The Associated Press. “They may think it was a tactical victory, but they will come to understand it was a strategic mistake.”
Lambert acknowledged earlier this year passing on records from Dominion Voting Systems to “law enforcement.” She then attached an affidavit that included some of the leaked emails and was signed by Dar Leaf — a county sheriff in southwestern Michigan who has investigated false claims of widespread election fraud from the 2020 election — to a filing in her own case in Michigan. The rest of the documents were posted to an account under Leaf’s name on the social platform X.
As a result, Dominion filed a motion demanding Lambert be removed from the Byrne case for violating a protective order that Upadhyaya had placed on documents in the case. It said Lambert’s disclosure had triggered a new round of threats toward the company, which has been at the center of elaborate conspiracy theories about Trump’s loss.
The request was described by Upadhyaya as “extraordinary” but necessary after Lambert has repeatedly shown she “has no regard for orders or her obligations as an attorney.”
In a separate case, Lambert has been charged in Michigan with four felonies for accessing voting machines in a search for evidence of a conspiracy theory against Trump. She was arrested by U.S. Marshals earlier this year after a Michigan judge issued a bench warrant for missing a hearing in her case.
Along with a local clerk in Michigan, Lambert has also been charged with multiple felonies, including unauthorized access to a computer and using a computer to commit a crime, after transmitting data from a local township’s poll book related to the 2020 election.
Lambert has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Lambert sued unsuccessfully to overturn Trump’s loss in Michigan.
Biden won Michigan by nearly 155,000 votes over then-President Trump, a result confirmed by a GOP-led state Senate investigation in 2021.
Dominion filed several defamation lawsuits against those who spread conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s loss. Fox News settled the most prominent of these cases for $787 million last year.
Dominion’s suit against Byrne is one of several the company has filed against prominent election deniers, including MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and attorney Sidney Powell.
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Associated Press reporter Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
By JOEY CAPPELLETTI
Associated Press
