Kari Lake’s MAGA lawyer dodges disciplinary hearing in effort to avoid disbarment: report

Former Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate and 2024 Senate hopeful Kari Lake's lawyers were sanctioned last May to pay $2,000 by the Arizona Supreme Court for making "'unequivocally false' claims that 35,000 falsified ballots were accepted by Maricopa County during the 2022 midterm election.

Arizona Mirror reports that Brian Blehm — one of the two sanctioned lawyers — failed to attend a Tuesday, May 21 disciplinary hearing that could've left him without a law license.

Blehm, according to AZ Mirror, instead gave the Arizona State Bar "a middle finger."

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Per the report, the state "Supreme Court found that Olsen and Blehm provided no evidence of the claim and sanctioned Lake and her team for making 'false factual statements to the Court.'"

State Bar of Arizona attorneys told the judge Tuesday "that Blehm’s license should be suspended for six months and one day for lying to the Supreme Court, as well as for his refusal to take responsibility for his actions and to even show up for the hearing."

AZ Mirror reports:

[Presiding Disciplinary Judge Margaret] Downie asked the State Bar attorneys to justify such a lengthy proposed suspension, and she contrasted it with the punishment given earlier this year to election attorney and Republican State Rep. Alexander Kolodin, who was only put on probation for his role in lawsuits challenging the 2020 election. Among other things, Kolodin was an attorney on the infamous 'kraken' lawsuit that made implausible and evidence-free claims of massive election fraud.

[Senior Counsel for the Bar Hunter] Perlmeter answered that, unlike Blehm, Kolodin was never accused of lying to the courts and that he was credited for having a cooperative attitude throughout the disciplinary proceedings.

Kolodin also voluntarily entered into an agreement with the Bar, under which he accepted being put on probation, paid a fine and agreed to participate in continuing legal education ethics courses.

Ahead of the May 21 hearing, the report notes instead of notifying the court that he planned to be absent, "on Sunday evening, Blehm sent an email to the State Bar of Arizona, informing them that he needed to 'depart for Colorado' on Monday and wouldn’t be able to attend in person. Blehm did not inform the court directly through the email address that he was told to use for correspondence regarding the case, but instead copied a court employee who is currently on leave."

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Blehm posted a video via X (formerly Twitter) just a couple of hours after the hearing "saying he couldn’t make the hearing and was on his way to take care of some personal business."

The attorney claimed the State Bar was trying to 'isolate the most active MAGA attorney in the State of Arizona during the entirety of the 2024 election."

Claiming the State Bar "was attempting to disbar him," the report notes that "Perlmeter insisted in the hearing that the claim was a lie, and while it isn’t technically true, the way the suspension is structured could allow it to be much longer than just six months — and possibly permanent."

According to Robert McWhirter, a Phoenix criminal and constitutional attorney, "a suspension of six months and one day carried with it much more severe consequences than a suspension of only six months. After a suspension of six months or less, an attorney’s license is reinstated automatically."

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Arizona Mirror's full report is available here.