Complaint filed against SC AG Alan Wilson, alleging he helped incite Capitol riot

A Columbia attorney has filed a complaint against S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson for promoting legal “falsehoods” that helped lead to last week’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

“Those baseless claims of fraud — claims Mr. Wilson endorsed and urged the Supreme Court to act on — incited supporters of Donald Trump to falsely believe the 2020 election was stolen,” said the complaint, written by attorney Chris Kenney to the state’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

Kenney is in the law firm of Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Richland County Democrat. Wilson, a loyal Trump supporter, is a Republican.

In an email to The State, a spokesperson for Wilson responded to the complaint, saying, “This complaint is pure partisan politics and it’s disgusting and despicable to try to tie what happened last week at the Capitol to the Attorney General. We have no further comment.”

“The baseless allegations of fraud culminated in thousands of rioters, some armed with tactical military gear and weapons, descending on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 23021, while votes of the Electoral College were being counted,” Kenney wrote.

Kenney wrote that “this attack on Congress was incited by the executive (Trump) with aid and comfort from many like Mr. Wilson, who repeated and lent the credibility of their offices to the false claim that the presidential election was stolen from Trump.”

Kenney also wrote that there are “serious, unanswered questions concerning Mr. Wilson’ knowledge and involvement with the Republican Attorneys General Association’s (RAGA’s) so-called Rule of Law Defense Fund that used robocalls to encourage participation in the so-called ‘March to Save America’ that ended in bloodshed on Jan. 6.”

At a pre-riot rally where Trump spoke, Trump urged those in attendance to march on the Capitol, saying things like “We will never give up. We will never concede... We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Before the president spoke, Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, told rally-goers that they faced a “trial by combat.” Complaints have been filed against Giuliani with the New York State Bar Association, which is investigating him for his alleged role in inciting violence.

At a press conference in Washington on Tuesday, federal law enforcement officials told reporters that they were investigating the extent of how much rioters preplanned and coordinated the violence at the Capitol. (Not all people at Trump’s rally went to the Capitol.) The officials said they expect sedition and conspiracy charges to be brought against some rioters.

Various news reports and video footage from the rally and riot have put the number of people at the Capitol to be at least several thousand, and the number of protesters at the Trump rally to be at least 8,000 or more.

Kenney continued, “Mr. Wilson has long been affiliated with RAGA in a leadership role and a former staffer from his office was serving as the group’s executive director until he resigned following the disclosure of RAGA’s role in urging participation in the insurrection,” Kenney wrote.

Wilson condemned the participation of the group’s involvement in a tweet on Saturday and, on Monday, told reporters that the fraud allegations were completely without evidence while acknowledging that Joe Biden is the lawful, rightful president elect.

Kenney revealed the complaint Tuesday afternoon in a tweet over the social media platform Twitter.

“This morning I filed a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel against @AGAlanWilson over his filings in Texas v. Penn. It is important the public know such conduct is not permitted. I hope the members of the @SCBAR who agree will make their voices heard — this is not okay,” tweeted Kenney.

The Texas lawsuit was full of “false claims as grounds to overturn the results (of elections) in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin. For example, Texas claimed suitcases of ballots were fraudulently introduced into the result, that a laptop and USB drive were stolen and used to alter vote tallies ... Texas contended in its filing ‘there is substantial reason to doubt the voting results,’ ” Kenney wrote.

“These lies were supported and amplified by Mr. Wilson and 15 other Republican attorneys general in a Dec. 9, 2020, filing as amici curiae(friend of the court) urging the (US) Supreme Court to take the case because ‘the allegations in the Bill of Complaint raise important questions about election integrity and public confidence in the administration of Presidential elections,’ ” Kenney wrote.

The Supreme Court took only a few hours to reject Wilson’s filing and the Texas lawsuit by a 9-0 vote. Seven justice said Texas did not have a legal interest in other states’ elections. Two other justices said they would have heard the case but indicated they would had have ruled against Texas.

Kenney said he emailed a copy of the complaint to Wilson Tuesday morning.

Under legal ethics rules that apply to all lawyers, lawyers are not supposed to make allegations in a lawsuit or legal filing unless they know there is a basis to believe there are solid grounds for doing so.

Kenney also pointed out in his letter that after filing his legal filing in the Supreme Court, Wilson went to lunch at the White House with Trump.

“It is important to hold Mr. Wilson accountable,” Kenney said.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel receives complaints about lawyers and judges. It gets about 1,400 complaints a year, many involving alleged financial irregularities or allegations of shoddy work by lawyers.

This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 2:39 PM.