December 7, 2020
Lin Wood: Consider the Source
By Matt Keener
As the media and pundits leap to disparage Georgia attorney and Trump supporter Lin Wood or discredit his claims of widespread voter fraud—it is important to consider who he is: a defamation lawyer.
And perhaps no one is better equipped or proven at correcting a false narrative than Wood.
His biggest victories include representing two of the most publicized instances of defamation or libel in the last 20 to 30 years in his representation of Richard Jewell and Nick Sandmann.
Jewell was incorrectly identified by the media and FBI as the bomber during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and Sandmann was mischaracterized as a flagrant racist while on a high school field trip to the Lincoln Memorial and Washington D.C.
When an attorney who carved out a niche successfully suing some of the most powerful organizations over false and damaging speech starts levying bold criminal allegations against politicians, it carries a degree of weight.
Lin Wood
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
If anyone knows the legal or financial repercussions of spreading falsehoods, it is Wood.
Wood himself provided context at a rally with fellow attorney Sidney Powell in Alpharetta, Georgia on Wednesday.
“I know about the law of defamation. I know about the damn crooked FBI too. I represented Richard Jewell,” he said.
After clarifying his background– Wood went scorched earth, challenging and railing against the powers that be in Georgia and across the globe.
“The law of defamation says if you make a false statement against someone that is defamatory, they can sue you. Listen carefully Governor Kemp. Listen carefully Brad Raffensperger,” he said. “I state as a matter of fact that you are criminals. You took money from Dominion. You took money from China with the Covid purchase. And I damn well bet you will never sue me because the truth will prove that I am right. You need to go to jail. Follow the money. Follow the money. These fat cats sitting around spending your money. Giving it to China. Sticking it in their family’s pockets. That’s not America.”
Woods comments at the rally are the legal equivalent of calling your shot in baseball.
Kemp or Raffensperger won’t sue him, according to Wood, because his allegations are true.
Wood is keenly aware of the repercussions of defamation in a way that few others are.
Wood called out George Soros. China. Joe Biden. Governor Brian Kemp. Kelly Loeffler.
Nothing and no one were off limits. It was an equal opportunity attack.
Speaking passionately — Wood was part preacher and part pep rally MC — on Wednesday afternoon:
“We’re going to send them a message. And the message is this–It’s 1776 in America again,” he exclaimed. “You’re not going to take our freedom. We’re going to fight for our liberty. We’re going to send that message from Wills Park today and we’re going to send it all the way over to Beijing China. We’re not going to let you take our country over. Never going to happen on our watch. This is America. You picked a fight with the wrong people.”
Afterwards, Wood became the target of left and right wing politicians and media alike for anything from being a clown, a liar or crazy.
Multiple Republicans accused him of being misguided or destructive for failing to emphasize the importance of Republicans winning the Georgia Senate runoff. Wood argued Wednesday that Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue should be actively fighting for Trump and voter integrity if they wanted voters to show up for their Senate race.
Powell and Wood are not known liars or fabricators of false stories.
If anything, these are the people that have historically gone after the liars of the world.
Indeed, when you hear Powell or Wood’s voice crack when they talk, you are hearing their passion and you are hearing their pain.
Even when others do not—Powell and Wood believe what they are saying.
And, whether they are right or wrong–They wear their heart and their conviction on their sleeve.
Someone would have an easier time convincing me Wood and Powell are nuts than they would that they are lying.
They are certainly crazy for America and incensed at the idea that this election could be stolen.
They are goofy.
They talk about the “Kraken” and “fighting like a Flynn.”
They do things that in 2020 America we do not do anymore: They prayed prior to the rally.
Wood mentioned Jesus Christ by name.
Wood says things like “this is the battle between good and evil. This is a battle between truth and lies.”
They are authentic and weird in their own ways.
They unabashedly and unashamedly love America when it has almost become taboo to do so.
Wood accomplished what most of us only dream about when we are banging on the kitchen counter over a media falsehood or ranting into the twitter-sphere.
He held the media accountable for slander and lies in the most tangible and American way as possible.
He sued them for libel and won.
In the rawest moment of the afternoon, Wood explained his achievements were attainable without a mother and father because he was born in the one country where that would even be a possibility, America.
“I was 16-years-old. My mother died and went to the morgue and my father went to prison. I didn’t have one thin dime in my pocket,” he said. “But I took the talent that god gave me and I had the fighting spirit to make it. But in any other country in the world I would not have made it. I made it because I was born in America and America gave me the opportunity to succeed in my life. And that’s why I love America. And that’s why I am going to fight for America. This is our battle. This is our fight. This is for our freedom.”
A day after Wood made his speech and proclaimed to the crowd “there are piles of evidence. There are mountains of evidence. This election was a fraud on America”– video emerged from State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia appearing to show boxes or suitcases full of “evidence.”
It seemed to show some of the “craziest” claims regarding election fraud may have some merit.
Perhaps no one has found himself more inextricably woven into the fight against the media’s history of falsely convicting people in the court of public opinion than Wood.
So perhaps it is fitting he finds himself one of the participants in the legal and political fight of a lifetime with the most maligned and misrepresented President in our nation’s history.