SC lawyers say SC AG Wilson participated in Trump conspiracy lawsuit, seek reprimand

Four S.C. lawyers have filed a complaint against Attorney General Alan Wilson, saying that motivated by political and not legal reasons, Wilson in December signed on to a Texas lawsuit full of bogus conspiracy theory claims that sought to overturn the Nov. 3 presidential election.

The claims Wilson supported by signing on to the Texas lawsuit were part of a wave of unfounded conspiracy theories by Trump supporters that undermined public confidence in the November elections and led to “the events of Jan. 6, 2021, with the storming of the U.S. Capitol,” the complaint said.

“Mr. Wilson should be publicly reprimand(ed) for using the office of the State Attorney General (to) further a political agenda by filing and participating in a lawsuit seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters in other States and Commonwealths without a basis in law or fact to do so,” said a letter written to John Nichols, head of Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the state body that polices lawyers’ ethics.

In a response, Wilson’s office said, “This complaint is pure partisan politics and it’s disgusting and despicable to try to tie the violence at the Capitol to a legal filing that asks a legitimate constitutional question.”

The letter was signed by attorneys Jay Elliott and Tucker Player of Columbia, and Thomas Pendarvis and Christopher Lempesis, both of Beaufort. Elliott’s practice includes both civil and criminal cases; Player handles civil cases, as do Pendarvis and Lempesis. Pendarvis handles legal malpractice complaints by clients against lawyers and serves on the S.C. Bar’s ethics committee.

All four said they were motivated by what they believed are serious ethical breaches by Wilson and that they are not activists or major contributors to any political party.

At issue in the complaint is Wilson’s December signing on to to a friend-of-the-court brief filed in support of a Texas lawsuit filed in the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to overturn Biden’s election. That lawsuit alleged election fraud could have occurred in four crucial battleground states due to lapses in ballot security and sought to undo the election results. Voters in those states voted for Biden over Trump.

Earlier this month, Columbia lawyer Chris Kenney filed a similar complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel against Wilson, alleging that the attorney general, by signing on to the Texas lawsuit, promoted “falsehoods” that helped lead to this month’s deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Wilson, a Republican, also characterized Kenney’s complaint as “pure partisan politics.” Kenney, a Columbia lawyer, works in the offices of State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland. Kenney also worked actively in the unsuccessful campaign of Rhodes Bailey, a Democrat, to unseat Rep. Kirkman Finlay, R-Richland, last fall.

After the Nov. 3 election, Trump’s allies led by attorney Rudy Giuliani filed some 60 lawsuits alleging election fraud in state and federal courts in battleground states that Trump believed he should have won. But virtually all those suits were dismissed for lack of evidence or failure to state a claim supported by the law. Trump’s then-attorney general, William Barr, the nation’s top legal officer, said the Department of Justice had found no serious instances of election fraud in any state.

Nonetheless, on Dec. 7, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Trump ally, filed a lawsuit in the U..S. Supreme Court alleging that four key battleground states for Trump had, using the pandemic as an excuse, weakened security measures surrounding the election and now it was impossible to know who won the presidential election. Basically, the Texas lawsuit sought to overturn elections that Biden won in four states.

On Dec. 9, with 15 other Republican attorneys general, Wilson signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Texas challenge to the election results in the four states.

Then, on Dec. 10, Wilson signed on to another motion in the Texas case. That second brief, if accepted by the US Supreme Court, would have allowed South Carolina to join Texas as a co-plaintiff in its effort to challenge the battleground states’ election results.

On Dec. 11, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously threw out the Texas lawsuit and Wilson’s briefs, ruling that Texas did not have a constitutional right to interfere in other states’ elections.

Wilson’s second motion was “plainly unconstitutional” and an effort to throw out “millions of votes in four states to favor one presidential candidate over another,” the three lawyers said.

Wilson has since said he accepts Biden as the nation’s legitimate president.

This story was originally published January 27, 2021 at 5:00 AM.