Lin Wood, left, and Donald Trump, right, appear in a White House photo from March 2020.
A stalwart ally of former president Donald Trump has been listed and subpoenaed as a witness for the state in Fulton County’s racketeering (RICO) case against the 45th president and 18 other co-defendants accused of taking part in a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) declined to indict defamation attorney L. Lin Wood after her special purpose grand jury recommended filing criminal charges against him in February. In a Wednesday court filing, the prosecutor representing most of Atlanta said Wood “is a witness for the state in the present case.”
The attorney confirmed the state’s effort to obtain his testimony but told Law&Crime he didn’t know why it was happening.
“I do not know why I am being subpoenaed,” Wood said in an email.
Wood previously addressed the inclusion of his name in the Fulton County DA’s latest motion on Telegram by hotly contesting some ways in which his sought-after testimony has been categorized.
“I have been subjected to a barrage of Mockingbird media requests this morning to comment on stories claiming that I have ‘flipped’ on President Trump because I have been subpoenaed as a witness in the Powell case,” Wood wrote. “There is NO TRUTH to those accusations.”
Wood told Law&Crime he does not intend to fight the subpoena.
“I have no knowledge that I believe would harm President Trump,” the attorney said. “I will answer all questions truthfully.”
The 107-page Willis filing is stylized as a motion that aims to put the court on notice about “potential conflicts of interest concerning” nine attorneys “who each previously represented” the 19 defendants in the RICO case or “witnesses for the state of Georgia in this matter.”
In one section, the prosecutor notes that Wood previously represented false electors Coreco Ja’Quan Pearson, Vikki Townsend Consiglio, Gloria Kay Godwin, James Kenneth Carroll, Carolyn Hall Fisher, and Cathleen Alston Latham in a post-election lawsuit.
That legal effort, Pearson v. Kemp, sought “to de-certify the results of the November 3, 2020, General Election” and “to enjoin them from taking any further action to perfect the certification of the results of the 2020 General Election or permit Georgia’s presidential electors to cast their votes for Vice President Biden in the Electoral College.”
Co-counsel in that lawsuit included so-called “Kraken” attorney Sidney Powell – who is named as a co-defendant in Fulton County’s sprawling, 98-page, 41-count criminal indictment – and attorney Harry W. MacDougald, who currently represents co-defendant Jeffrey Clark.
Willis notes MacDougald “also previously represented” Wood and served as his co-counsel in another failed effort to litigate the outcome of the 2020 election filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Mr. MacDougald’s former clients and co-counsel would be subject to cross-examination by him were he to remain counsel of record in this case,” the Fulton County DA’s Wednesday filing argues.
Willis began investigating various members of the 45th president’s post-election legal team – including his lead attorney, Rudy Giuliani – in the spring of 2021. In January 2022, Willis requested and was allowed to impanel a special purpose grand jury to investigate Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Willis declined to pursue charges against Wood and several others in the indictment handed up by a traditional grand jury this August.
The attorney, famous for his work on behalf of JonBenét Ramsey’s parents and falsely suspected Richard Jewell, reiterated his support for the former president.
“I am a follower of Jesus Christ who supports President Trump,” Wood told Law&Crime.
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