SEATTLE — The state Supreme Court has suspended the law license of an attorney for 2020 Republican gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp for abusing the legal system by making frivolous claims of widespread voter fraud in that election.
Stephen W. Pidgeon, the attorney who sued the state on Culp’s behalf, claiming the 2020 election was illegitimate, only to withdraw the case under threat of legal sanctions, will be prohibited from practicing law in the state for one year, according to the Supreme Court order. The suspension is effective Aug. 21.
In suspending Pidgeon, the state Supreme Court upheld charges by the state bar association’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which brought a formal complaint against him in December 2022.
A hearing officer in April of this year concluded that Pidgeon had violated rules of professional conduct for lawyers by knowingly “bringing a frivolous proceeding and asserting frivolous claims.”
Pidgeon’s actions caused injury “to the legal system and legal profession,” wrote the hearing officer, Randolph Petgrave III, adding that “aggravating factors” in the case included Pidgeon’s refusal to admit his “wrongful” conduct and his failure to respond to the bar association’s formal charges.
In a phone interview Monday, Pidgeon shrugged off the penalty, saying he has not been working as an attorney since the Culp lawsuit, and now lives in Alaska, where he gives religious talks. He voluntarily resigned from the state bar last year, records show.
“I am going to be 69 here in three days. I am quite happy about not practicing law any more. You cannot believe how much stress this relieves,” said Pidgeon, who had previously practiced law in Everett.
The Supreme Court’s disciplinary ruling, signed by Chief Justice Steven González on Aug. 14, stemmed from a bar association complaint filed in early 2021 by attorneys for the state Democratic Party.
Shasti Conrad, chair of the state Democratic Party, wrote in a text message Monday she was pleased with the resolution of the complaint.
“This suit shows that while we are working to make sure everyone eligible can vote, WA Republicans are still focused on stymieing the rule of law and denying election results when they lose,” Conrad wrote.
The 2020 Washington gubernatorial race, in which Gov. Jay Inslee won a third term, was no nail-biter, like 2000’s Bush vs. Gore presidential contest — or Washington’s razor-thin Gregoire vs. Rossi gubernatorial race in 2004.
Culp, a former small-town police chief, got walloped in the general election, losing to Inslee by 13 percentage points — , according to the results certified in all 39 counties.
Rather than concede, Culp, represented by Pidgeon, filed a lawsuit in December 2020 against then-Secretary of State Kim Wyman, alleging the election was rife with “intolerable voting anomalies” and “was at all times fraudulent.”
Pidgeon had previously represented other conservative causes in courts, including unsuccessful challenges to COVID-19 restrictions. He ran as a Republican for attorney general in 2012 and spread false conspiracy theories that then-President Barack Obama was a secret Muslim who planned to impose an Islamic caliphate on the United States.
The lawsuit over the 2020 election, filed in King County, sought an audit of ballots and voting machines in five counties. It did not provide substantive evidence of its claims and included suggestions of a vote-flipping conspiracy because then-President Donald Trump was leading Joe Biden in Washington state early on election night, before additional ballots were counted.
The lawsuit’s claims were rejected as false by Wyman and county election administrators, and the bar assocation’s disciplinary counsel concluded the assertions “had no basis in fact or law that was not frivolous.”
Pidgeon and Culp withdrew the lawsuit in January 2021 after Attorney General Bob Ferguson threatened to ask a judge to sanction Pidgeon for making meritless claims in a court of law.
The lobbing of false claims echoed the “Big Lie” strategy of Trump and his allies, which stoked the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of supporters bent on halting congressional certification of Biden’s win. Trump is now facing multiple criminal indictments over his efforts to overturn the legitimate election results.
In the interview Monday, Pidgeon insisted his case was not about mimicking Trump’s tactics. He said he wasn’t even a Trump supporter and that his case was about preserving the “civil rights” of legal voters.
Pidgeon disagreed with the court and the bar association’s conclusion that his lawsuit was frivolous.
“Everybody has got an opinion, and I can tell you my opinion differs from theirs,” he said.
