About
Lin Wood is a conspiracy theorist and defamation lawyer who has run an often controversial practice in Atlanta, Georgia since 1983. In 2020, he joined Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election, filing a lawsuit challenging the election outcomes in Georgia and Michigan. In addition to his legal efforts, Wood used his social media platform to promote lies about the election and encourage violence against public officials. He has publicly associated himself with the QAnon internet cult and conspiracy theory.
January 6, 2021
- In the months leading up to the attack on the Capitol, Wood spread inflammatory rhetoric about the election on social media, including encouraging violence against elected officials.
- In a Dec. 14, 2020 post on Twitter, Wood encouraged supporters to stock up on “2nd amendment supplies” and added, “Remember we only have 1 President at a time. Our leader is @realDonaldTrump, not Biden.”
- On Jan. 1, 2021, Wood tweeted that Mike Pence could “face execution by firing squad,” claiming the vice president had committed “treason,” ostensibly for his unwillingness to challenge the Electoral College results. On Jan. 6, 2021, crowds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol chanting: “Hang Mike Pence!”
- On Jan. 6, 2021, Wood posted on the rightwing social media platform Parler: “Get the firing squads ready. Pence goes FIRST.”
- Wood was permanently banned from Twitter on Jan. 6, 2021 for claiming that the violent attack on Capitol had been staged.
The Big Lie
- In an interview with CNBC, Wood said that following the 2020 election he hosted Trump allies and lawyers at his South Carolina plantation to “work on the election cases.” He mentioned Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne, and Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan as among those who attended the gathering.
- Wood sued to challenge the 2020 election results in Georgia and Michigan.
- In the Georgia lawsuit, he claimed the state’s method of verifying signatures on ballots was unconstitutional—which Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs described as a “silly, baseless claim.” The suit was rejected by U.S. District Court Judge Steven Grimberg on Nov. 21, 2020.
- Wood joined Sidney Powell in suing to overturn the election results in Michigan. U.S. District Judge Linda Parker rejected the suit in December 2020, pointing out that it would “ignore the will of millions of voters.” In August 2021, Parker ordered sanctions for Wood, Powell, and other lawyers involved in the effort. On Dec. 2, 2021, the judge ordered the conservative attorneys to pay $175,000 to cover the legal fees incurred by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during the legal proceedings.
- In November 2020, Wood spread election falsehoods on Twitter—including a video purporting to show ballots and related materials being loaded into a truck to be shredded. Cobb County Communications Director Ross Cavitt debunked the claim, saying that a “document disposal company was at the building as part of a regularly-scheduled visit to the Cobb Tax Commissioner’s office. No items from Cobb Elections were involved.”
- On Dec. 2, 2020, Wood spoke at an Atlanta rally, doubling down on the claim that the election had been stolen and telling the crowd “it’s 1776 in America again,” referring to the pivotal point in the Revolutionary War when Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence.
- Leading up to Georgia’s Jan. 5, 2021 runoff election for the U.S. Senate, Wood urged supporters not to vote in elections employing Dominion Voting Systems machines, doubling-down on baseless claims that the company’s equipment was unreliable.
Post-2020 Election Subversion
- Wood has been relatively quiet since the 2020 election, although he has been called to testify in front of a Fulton County (Georgia) grand jury that is investigating the Georgia Fake Electors scheme and the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn Georgia election results.