Judge tosses attorney ethics case against Trump ally Sidney Powell
By David Thomas February 24, 2023
Feb 23 (Reuters) - A Texas judge has thrown out disciplinary charges that state regulators filed last year against pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, finding "numerous defects" in the evidence presented.
The State Bar of Texas Commission for Lawyer Discipline sued Powell last March, claiming she "had no reasonable basis" for filing lawsuits challenging U.S. President Joe Biden's victories in key battleground states in the 2020 presidential election.
But Judge Andrea Bouressa, of Collin County District Court, said in a decision dated Wednesday that she had difficulties finding evidence that the state bar tried to cite in the case. As a result, she considered only two of eight exhibits the commission filed.
Bouressa said her ruling "resolves all claims between all parties and is final and appealable."
A representative for the Texas state bar said the commission would review the decision. Powell's attorney Robert Holmes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Powell was among the most prominent lawyers to bring lawsuits after the election, alleging massive misconduct in battleground states that Democrat Biden won.
In her failed lawsuits in Michigan and Wisconsin, she alleged a vast fraud linking voting machines to the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and hackers from China and Iran.
A federal judge in Detroit sanctioned Powell and other lawyers in 2021, describing her case there as "a historic and profound abuse of the judicial process." Powell and the other lawyers are appealing the sanctions order to the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.