Facing license suspension, Kari Lake's lawyer skips discipline hearing on false election claims

An Arizona lawyer who represented Kari Lake in her election challenges struck a defiant tone on social media before skipping a hearing Tuesday over his punishment for dishonesty.

Bryan Blehm, one of three Lake lawyers sanctioned by the state Supreme Court last year, criticized the court and state Attorney General Kris Mayes on X.com and in a May 17 internet show on Rumble.

"The State Bar of Arizona seeks to use my own words against me. They found me guilty without a trial and expect me to sit down and shut the (expletive) up," he tweeted May 20. "If it is my dignity they are after, they have knocked on the wrong door."

The bar doesn't make determinations of guilt. But Margaret Downie, the Arizona Supreme Court's presiding disciplinary judge, on April 30 ruled in favor of part of one of the bar's counts against Blehm.

Downie found, based on the Supreme Court's prior sanction order, that Blehm knowingly asserted as "undisputed" the highly disputed claim that nearly 36,000 ballots were somehow added to the 2022 election results. At the same time, Downie and the bar agreed to dismiss a second count accusing Blehm of failing to provide "reasonable diligence" in representing his client.

The Tuesday hearing was scheduled to determine aggravating or mitigating factors that would aid Downie in her decision on punishment.

Downie moved forward with the proceeding after affirming with state bar lawyers that Blehm was given every chance to appear in person or in a video call. Blehm had reportedly wavered on the choice before sending an email to a court employee on Sunday that he "needed to go to Colorado," Downie recounted.

In a May 19 video he posted on X, Blehm can be seen in the desert cooking on a camp stove placed on a truck tailgate. In the video, he rails over Mayes obtaining grand jury indictments of 18 people, including two sitting state senators, of allegedly conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. He appeared to liken Arizona's political regime to that of dictators Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong.

Bar lawyers Hunter Perlmeter and Kelly Goldstein argued that Downie should consider Blehm's public statements on social media an aggravating factor because they show a lack of remorse.

Blehm claimed on the internet he was being disbarred after being found "guilty without a trial," which Perlmeter said isn't true. Blehm also said on Rumble the state Supreme Court was a "political compromise," though Perlmeter noted Blehm didn't explain what he meant by that.

Grand jury transcripts: How election misinformation, conspiracies led to felony grand jury indictments in rural AZ

The state bar recommended a suspension of Blehm's law license for six months and a day, a significant punishment that would require him to engage in a formal reinstatement process in which he must "show rehabilitation and fitness to practice" before he can return to work as a lawyer.

The judge said afterward she'll make a ruling on the matter within 30 days.

Blehm didn't return a phone message seeking comment. But he did take to X again on Tuesday after the hearing, calling the possible sentence "effective disbarment" and saying the bar "wants to isolate the most active MAGA attorney in the state of Arizona during the entirety of the 2024 election."

Before becoming Lake's lawyer, Blehm previously worked as legal counsel on the partisan audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, getting work from both the state Senate and Cyber Ninjas, the defunct Florida company that conducted the audit.

In 2022, he was embroiled in another election controversy that resulted in the felony indictments of two county supervisors for delaying the certification of election results. Recently released transcripts revealed members of the grand jury considered indicting Blehm and Cochise County Recorder David Stevens for pushing ahead with efforts to conduct a hand count despite a court order blocking the plan.

Panel and lawyers debate punishment

Lake, a Trump-backed Republican, filed multiple lawsuits after losing her bid for governor to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs by about 17,000 votes. She has lost every step of the way, but her main case challenging the 2022 election remains in play. The state Court of Appeals heard oral arguments over the case earlier this month during which another Lake lawyer, Kurt Olsen, asked the court to "set aside" the 2022 election results.

The state Supreme Court's Attorney Discipline Probable Cause Committee kicked off the discipline case in December involving Blehm, Olsen and a third Lake lawyer, Andrew Parker. Olsen is from Washington, D.C., and therefore wouldn't receive more than a reprimand as punishment. He has already paid $2,000 stemming from the state Supreme Court's sanction last year.

Blehm's bar case is the first of the three to near a conclusion.

The lawyers argued in Lake's case that 35,563 ballots were “injected” at Runbeck, a third-party vendor hired by Maricopa County to print ballots, scan ballot envelopes and perform other election-related duties. As county lawyers proved, the number was the difference between an estimate of the number of ballots Runbeck would receive before the 2022 election, and the actual number later verified.

Blehm later wrote to the state bar he was supporting his client's assertion of a wrongful addition of ballots but insisted he never "attempted to mislead the court" or the bar. However, the state Supreme Court held Lake's lawyers to account over the issue, noting how the lawyers had been told their ballot figure was disputed but continued to assert it was not.

Downie on Tuesday showed concern the proposed punishment might go too far and questioned whether the bar was influenced by the political nature of the case. She highlighted Cave Creek attorney Daniel McCauley, who was sanctioned by the state bar in January for making unsupported statements in an election challenge by Mark Finchem, a former state lawmaker and secretary of state candidate. Although McCauley's license was suspended for 30 days and he was forced to retire, Downie suggested his punishment wasn't as harsh as Blehm's proposed suspension.

But McCauley was different, the bar lawyers said, because he was "not dishonest and was remorseful." Similarly, in a case involving "frivolous lawsuits" over the 2020 election, lawyer and state Rep. Alexander Kolodin received public admonishment, 18 months of probation and an order to repay $2,696 in bar costs. But those were the only punishments because Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, had "no dishonesty finding," Perlmeter said.

Two other panelists joined Downie in the hearing, attorney George Riemer and public member Marsha Morgan Sitterley. Riemer asked the bar lawyers if their discipline recommendation would be the same if the case was about a traffic accident and someone said "it's undisputed the person ran a red light" when the fact was disputed.

"We would," Perlmeter replied.

Reach the reporter at  rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Kari Lake attorney faces law license suspension for false election claims