Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood’s rhetoric on social media sparked threats against his former colleague, who received messages calling her a “f-ing snake,” demanding that she be “put to the sword” and calling for her “gang rape,” the woman’s lawyer alleged in court on Thursday morning.
The allegation surfaced during Wood’s litigation with Nicole Wade, who claims that she was his partner before his “erratic, hostile, abusive, and threatening” behavior drove her and her colleagues to establish a different law firm.
Roughly a year ago, attorneys Jonathan Grunberg, Taylor Wilson and Wade sued Wood in Georgia, claiming that Wood fraudulently induced them into signing a settlement agreement that he then breached. Their lawsuit charts what they describe as the once-prominent defamation attorney’s decline well before the lead-up of the 2020 presidential election.
On Thursday, Wade’s attorney Andrew Beal claimed that Wood called Wade a “lying ghost” to his hundreds of thousands of followers on Telegram, sparking some to besiege her with threatening messages.
“You f-ing snake,” one message allegedly read, according to Beal. “We will not stop until you’re put to the sword.”
Beal added: “Then it’s topped off with threats of gang rape.”
Wood vigorously denied responsibility for any threats.
“I just resent the idea that I threatened anybody,” Wood insisted. “I don’t do that.”
(Wood claimed that Beal made that allegation for the benefit of this reporter, whom he alleged writes “propaganda hit pieces” about him.)
The roughly 90-minute hearing centered on a request by Wood’s attorney Ibrahim Reyes, a Florida-based lawyer, to appear “pro hac vice” (for the occasion) in Georgia courts. Beal opposed his admission, claiming that Reyes did not follow the court’s rules and “conspired” with Wood’s attacks on Wade.
Judge Ural Glanville ultimately accepted Reyes’ bid for admission before the court, provided that Reyes sent the court an order for his signature by a 1 p.m. deadline. But the judge chided the attorneys to lower the temperature and keep matters civil and professional.
The lawsuit against Wood accuses him of a range of uncivil and unprofessional behavior, ranging from profanity to assault.
“In the Fall of 2019, defendant Wood also committed assault and battery on Grunberg in an elevator of a hotel during an out of town deposition,” they wrote in their complaint, which also alleges that Wood attacked Wilson. “In both assaults, there was essentially no reason whatsoever for the attack, and defendant Wood later acknowledged and apologized for this violence.”
According to the lawsuit, Wood likened himself to Biblical figures and had a habit of associating himself with “God Almighty.”
“I might actually be Christ coming back for a second time in the form of an imperfect man, elevating Christ consciousness,” Wood was taped saying, according to a remarkable footnote of his ex-associates’ motion. “That cause you to have a little bit of a chill? Who would be more eloquent to say what the will of God is, the belief of God in me.”
They claim the remark was not a one-off.
“I represent Moses,” Wood allegedly declared on tape. “I represent Ananias the believer. I’m like the power of King David. Now look you all, I told you I was going to pray tonight to my God, not to myself, because to me there’s God and there’s me.”
As their professional relationship ruptured, the ex-associates claim that Wood fraudulently induced them into signing a confidential settlement agreement in early 2020, which they claim he never intended to honor.
(image via YouTube screengrab)
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