Attorney L. Lin Wood
Attorney L. Lin Wood filed a subpoena in federal court on Monday directed at the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in relation to a lawsuit that asked a judge to discard all of Georgia’s absentee ballots, claiming election officials conducted their duties in an unconstitutional manner. The proposed subpoena contained a strange array of demands, such as recordings of the Hawk’s State Farm Arena—which was used as a voting site—from Nov. 3 to Nov. 5. Wood even sought documents about leaky toilets.
The first three demands sought “any and all recordings of any format, whether digital or otherwise, of the Premises, recorded at any time from 12:00 a.m. on November 3, 2020, through and including 12:00 a.m. on November 5, 2020,” along with any recovered or deleted records.
The fourth demand is where it gets particularly interesting, seeking:
“Any and all documents, including but not limited to work orders, repair orders, incident logs, and correspondence, referring or related to any plumbing issues within the Premises, including but not limited to malfunctioning or broken water pipes and malfunctioning, leaking, or broken toilets within the Premises, relating to any plumbing issue at the Premises occurring at any time.”
Wood, recently known for representing accused murderer Kyle Rittenhouse, made headlines on Friday when his request for a temporary restraining order against Georgia’s election certification was rejected in a straightforward opinion from U.S. District Judge Steven Grimberg, a Donald Trump appointee. As previously reported by Law&Crime, Grimberg was clearly unimpressed with the evidence Wood submitted to support his claims of voting irregularities, such as an affidavit (“Exhibit Q”) arguing that Georgia’s vote count was not trustworthy because more people voted in Michigan than live in Minnesota.
In his Friday decision rejecting Wood’s temporary restraining order (TRO) request, Grimberg ruled that the attorney lacked standing to assert any of the claims in his complaint, but for some reason the judge did not dismiss the case in its entirety—a point the defendants made in a three-page motion to dismiss on Monday.
On Tuesday, Judge Grimberg issued a stay on all discovery in the case until he renders a decision on the defendants’ motion to dismiss. It should be noted that Judge Grimberg already made clear that Wood was demanding something extraordinary and unprecedented which would doubtless harm the public in “countless ways.”
“The Court finds that the threatened injury to Defendants as state officials and the public at large far outweigh any minimal burden on Wood,” Grimberg wrote. “To reiterate, Wood seeks an extraordinary remedy: to prevent Georgia’s certification of the votes cast in the General Election, after millions of people had lawfully cast their ballots. To interfere with the result of an election that has already concluded would be unprecedented and harm the public in countless ways.”
Now discovery has been halted pending a ruling on the motion to dismiss.
Given the judge’s unambiguous opinion of the case, the Atlanta Hawks probably don’t have to worry about preparing to respond to Wood’s subpoena demands. They can focus on basketball, instead.
Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certified last Friday that Joe Biden won the Peach State in the 2020 election. Kemp also called for an audit.
Read Wood’s proposed subpoena below:
Atl Hawks Subpoena by Law&Crime on Scribd
Notice of Subpoena by Law&Crime on Scribd
[image via Fox News screengrab]