Latest news with #ShogrenSmith
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Brooklyn Center lawyer in Big Lie cases suspended by Minnesota Supreme Court
Chambers of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Courtesy Minnesota Judicial Branch. The Minnesota Supreme Court suspended Susan Shogren Smith from practicing law after finding she named plaintiffs in Big Lie election cases without their consent in 2020, according to a June 5 order. The state's highest court filed the order following a petition for disciplinary action from the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board. The board, which oversees the state's lawyer disciplinary system, alleged Shogren Smith, now 57, committed professional misconduct. '[Shogren Smith's] misconduct is serious,' the court order stated. 'Her misconduct involved not just a lack of competence and failure to communicate with clients, but dishonesty to the courts and disregard for the discipline process.' Shogren Smith did not respond to a phone message. In 2020, the Brooklyn Center attorney represented the conservative group Minnesota Election Integrity Team in five cases that challenged election results. Shogren Smith named Secretary of State Steve Simon and Democratic House candidates as defendants. President Donald Trump and his allies were busy at the time fostering unfounded claims of election fraud in what became known as the Big Lie, i.e., that President Joe Biden didn't actually win the election. The claims were rejected by Trump's own attorney general and dozens of judges. Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro presided over four cases, and one was sent to a three-judge panel. The cases, which Smith filed on behalf of 14 plaintiffs, were dismissed with roughly $18,000 in monetary judgement filed against the plaintiffs. The state Supreme Court found that Shogren Smith enlisted the plaintiffs without their consent or even any communication with them. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Shogren Smith selected the 14 people out of a group who had returned affidavits to an email soliciting people to contest Minnesota election results. She drafted the affidavit, and then tacked the responders' names onto lawsuits she filed the next day, according to the order. 'Indeed, at no time either prior to or during the litigation did [Shogren Smith] have any conversations or communications, of any kind, with any of the 14 plaintiffs, none of whom even knew [Shogren Smith's] name,' the court order stated. The plaintiffs didn't speak with the attorney until February 2021. According to the court order, one plaintiff had 'fortuitously discovered through other means' that she was listed as a party in a lawsuit and had a monetary judgement against her. That plaintiff — identified in news reports as Corinne Braun — alerted local authorities and the presiding district court judge. Between a hearing and a decision from the three-judge panel, Shogren Smith was charged $25,000. Once other plaintiffs were aware, nine of the 14 asked to be removed from the proceedings. Shogren Smith became a licensed Minnesota lawyer in 2004, according to state records. In addition to practicing law, she operates a licensed foster home and has been involved in a number of nonprofits, political and otherwise. Among those is Picture A Hero, which delivers family portraits to military personnel who are preparing to deploy. Social media posts from Shogren Smith show her posing in Trump merch and assisting in storm clean-ups with the group We the People are Coming to Save America. The Minnesota Supreme Court determined Shogren Smith's suspension based on four factors: the nature of the misconduct; the cumulative weight of the violations of the rules of professional conduct; harm to the public; and harm to the legal profession. The suspension takes effect 14 days after it was filed, and it also bars Shogren Smith from petitioning for reinstatement for six months. She cannot be reinstated until she pays $25,000 in sanctions she received in 2021, and upon reinstatement she would face two years of probation.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Brooklyn Center attorney suspended by Minnesota Supreme Court
The Minnesota Supreme Court has indefinitely suspended attorney Susan Shogren Smith, who authorities say filed legal challenges in the November 2020 election without permission of the plaintiffs. The suspension from practicing law came Thursday, on the heels of a petition for disciplinary action against Shogren Smith filed by the Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility saying that she has conducted professional misconduct. The Brooklyn Center attorney was given a $10,000 sanction in 2021 after a judge found she 'bamboozled' voters into signing on as plaintiffs without their knowledge or permission to file legal challenges against the election of five congressional Democrats. Calls to Shogren Smith on Friday were not returned. The petition for disciplinary action noted that a three-judge panel had determined she had committed a 'fraud on the court' and gave her an additional $15,000 sanction. The petition claims that Shogren Smith has failed to pay the $25,000, according to court documents. 'Respondent's misconduct is serious,' the state Supreme Court document said, 'and involved not just lack of competence and failure to communicate with clients, but dishonesty to the courts and disregard for the discipline process.' The court documents said her actions were 'not a brief lapse of judgement' but something that occurred for several years. Shogren Smith is a member of the MN Election Integrity Team, a conservative group that sought to prevent the state from certifying its election results while President Donald Trump and his allies promoted unfounded claims of election fraud. On Dec. 1, 2020, she filed five complaints in Ramsey County District Court, naming as defendants Secretary of State Steve Simon and the Democratic candidates who won their Congressional races. Those legal challenges were filed in the names of 14 separate voters, at least four of whom had no idea they were participating. 'Susan Shogren Smith … perpetrated a fraud against this court and, more importantly, perpetrated a fraud against these plaintiffs,' Ramsey County Chief District Judge Leonardo Castro said at the time the first sanction was imposed. In February of 2021, Republican activist Corinne Braun discovered her name was connected to one of the cases. 'To my horror, I saw that I had sued Steve Simon and Ilhan Omar. It was a surreal moment for me,' she said, likening the discovery to finding her car had been broken into. Braun testified she had received an anonymous email asking to add her name to a list of disgruntled voters. She filled out the form and signed her name and then forwarded the email to about 5,000 people on her mailing list. As Shogren Smith explained in court, what Braun had signed was an affidavit that agreed she 'will be joining with other voters across Minnesota to contest Minnesota election results.' Braun, though, said she didn't understand the implications. Shogren Smith acknowledged she never spoke with the plaintiffs or informed them of the outcome of the case, even when Braun and two other unwitting plaintiffs were ordered to pay $3,873 to the defendants at the conclusion of the case. Shogren Smith said at the time, she believed someone else with the MN Election Integrity Team was having those conversations with plaintiffs. 'I absolutely believed that those conversations were happening with these plaintiffs,' she said. U.S. Customs Border Protection officer charged with possessing child porn Man once convicted in Minnesota of supporting al-Qaida is now charged in Canada for alleged threats Jury finds Milwaukee man guilty of killing and dismembering 19-year-old woman 'We feel relief': Derrick Thompson found guilty in Minneapolis crash that killed five young women Man charged with hate crime in Boulder attack on 'Zionist people' appears in federal court
