Lin Wood, a former member of Donald Trump’s legal team who questioned the results of the 2020 election, has been listed as a witness for the state pertaining to the former president’s most recent charges in Georgia, according to new court records.
Fulton County prosecutors included Wood with a number of others in a document published Wednesday. Trump and 18 others, included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, attorney John Eastman and ally Sidney Powell, were indicted on 41 charges for allegedly engaging in “a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in the favor of Trump” between November 4, 2020, and September 15, 2022.
Aside from describing the 2020 election as stolen, Wood has dabbled in various conspiracy theories over the years—including that no planes hit the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, and that it doesn’t matter whether QAnon is true while encouraging conservatives to believe in the political movement.
In July, Wood—who was recommended by a grand jury to be indicted but ultimately was not at Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ discretion—wrote a letter to the State Bar of Georgia urging it to retire his law license, acknowledging that the request is unqualified, irrevocable and permanent. His request was granted.
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“My retirement had nothing to do with the DA’s case in Georgia,” Wood told Newsweek via email on Wednesday. “I do not know why I am listed as a witness.”
When asked if he has been given notice about being a witness in the case or that he would have to testify, Wood did not respond.
“The revelation in a court filing today identifying Lin Wood as a witness for the prosecution is probably very bad news for defendant Sidney Powell and perhaps also for the former president,” Clark Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University, told Newsweek via email.
In December 2021, Wood told CNBC that he hosted numerous election conspiracy theorists on his Tomotley Plantation in South Carolina following the 2020 presidential election. Guests included Powell, former national security adviser Mike Flynn and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne.
He said that Powell asked him if she and her team could use his $7.9 million property “to do work on the election cases.” The three were at a December 2020 Trump White House meeting, which prompted Byrne to testify in July 2022 for nearly eight hours before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“To the extent that Lin participated in or overheard conversations involving Powell while she and her team were his guests, they would be admissible at trial against her as a defendant and probably against Trump as her alleged co-conspirator,” Cunningham said. “The December 18 meeting is one of the ‘overt acts’ alleged as part of the criminal enterprise RICO charges in the Fulton County indictment.”
Attorney Bradley Moss wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he didn’t foresee Wood flipping on the former president and other allies.
“When the rubber meets the road, people will often do what is best for themselves—not a political movement they were sucked into—and we’re seeing that with people like Lin Wood appearing as a prosecution witness,” Moss told Newsweek via email.
“I fully expect he will not be the last person we are surprised to learn will testify for the State, including the possibility of some of Trump’s current co-defendants striking cooperation deals between now and trial.”
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment.