Judge removes election-denying lawyer from Dominion defamation case for ‘egregious misconduct’

By Marshall Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — A judge barred an indicted, election-denying lawyer from being involved in one of Dominion Voting Systems’ 2020 election defamation cases after she publicly leaked the company’s internal emails.

The lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, had represented former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne in the lawsuit, which Dominion filed because he has repeatedly accused the voting technology company, falsely, of rigging the 2020 election against former President Donald Trump.

Federal Judge Moxila Upadhyaya said Tuesday in a searing 62-page ruling that she was removing Lambert from the case because of her “truly egregious misconduct,” concluding that she “flagrantly and repeatedly disregarded court orders” by publicly disclosing “thousands, if not millions” of internal Dominion documents without any legal justification.

“Lambert’s actions were intentional and clearly meant to inflict the harm that has resulted,” Upadhyaya wrote, adding that “this Court cannot allow such intentional, dangerous, and relentless misconduct to continue.”

Byrne and Lambert are part of a coterie of Trump supporters who tried to overturn the 2020 results and are still peddling debunked claims that Dominion software manipulated the outcome. Separate from the Dominion litigation, Lambert is facing criminal charges in Michigan over her alleged role in a conspiracy to seize voting machines in 2020 in hopes of proving her voter fraud theories. (She pleaded not guilty.)

In an email Wednesday, Lambert said Byrne plans to appeal the judge’s decision.

The decision to disqualify Lambert from the Dominion case comes months after she leaked internal Dominion emails to a right-wing Michigan sheriff who has used his office to investigate baseless theories about the 2020 election. The sheriff, Dar Leaf, subsequently posted many of the documents online – doxing Dominion staffers by publicly disclosing their names, email addresses, and cell phone numbers.

“Byrne and Lambert’s acts have not only fueled theories of widescale election fraud and crime … they have resulted in real harm and threats to Dominion employees,” Upadhyaya wrote in Tuesday’s ruling.

The ruling was yet another rebuke for election deniers like Lambert who have tried to exploit the legal system to delegitimize the 2020 election. Other pro-Trump lawyers have been convicted of state crimes or lost their law license, in addition to the facing defamation suits.

“Lambert’s repeated misconduct raises the serious concern that she became involved in this litigation for the sheer purpose of gaining access to and publicly sharing Dominion’s protected discovery,” Upadhyaya wrote, highlighting “a concerning pattern of conduct” from Lambert in 2020 election-related litigation.

A Dominion spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday, “We appreciate the court’s careful decision to disqualify Patrick Byrne’s counsel.”

“Our case against Byrne is moving forward and we will hold him accountable for continuing to spread lies about Dominion and our employees,” the statement said.

Lambert only had access to the internal Dominion files because she was Byrne’s attorney. It’s very uncommon for a judge to remove an attorney from a case – but Upadhyaya noted that “this is the rare case in which disqualification is warranted.”

The judge also concluded in her ruling Tuesday that Byrne violated the court’s orders by aiding the leaks, and said Dominion can seek additional sanctions against him in the future.

At a testy hearing in March, Dominion argued that Lambert brazenly violated the court’s orders for how to handle confidential materials. They said her leaks put Dominion employees at risk and claimed that she hijacked the case in order to continue spreading lies about the 2020 election.

She was arrested at the conclusion of that hearing in Washington, DC, because of an outstanding warrant in her Michigan criminal case. She was released by a local judge after spending one night in the DC jail and subsequently surrendered to authorities in Michigan, where her criminal case is ongoing.

In the Dominion case, Byrne denies the defamation allegations. The judge gave him one month to find a new attorney or declare that he will represent himself.

This story has been updated with additional reaction.

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