- Norm Pattis, a lawyer in the Proud Boys sedition trial, had his license suspended for 6 months.
- Pattis accidentally forwarded records related to Alex Jones’ financials to opposing counsel.
- Pattis is expected to ask a DC judge to let him defend Proud Boy Joseph Biggs at trial next week.
Attorney Norm Pattis, who represented Alex Jones during his defamation trial in Connecticut this summer, had his license to practice law suspended by a judge for six months for accidentally releasing cell phone and medical records related to Sandy Hook.
Pattis is on the legal team for Jason Biggs, one of five Proud Boys now on trial for seditious conspiracy in federal court in Washington, DC, according to two sources with knowledge of his circumstances but who were not at liberty to be quoted by name.
But at least as of now, he will only be able to serve as Biggs’ paralegal, meaning he will be unable to directly address the judge, jurors, or witnesses during the trial, the sources said.
Pattis is expected to ask the trial judge on Monday to be allowed to take a larger role representing his client, one of the sources said. Jury selection in the high-profile case is expected to conclude Monday, with opening statements set for Tuesday.
In August, Pattis accidentally sent a digital file that contained Jones’ cell phone contents and some medical records of Sandy Hook parents to the opposing counsel. The parents had successfully sued the far-right conspiracy theorist for defamation and were in the middle of a trial seeking damages.
“We cannot expect our system of justice or our attorneys to be perfect but we can expect fundamental fairness and decency,” Judge Barbara Bellis, who sat on the Connecticut trial, wrote in her order suspending Pattis’ license. “There was no fairness or decency in the treatment of the plaintiffs’ most sensitive and personal information, and no excuse for the respondent’s misconduct.”
Pattis had argued the dissemination of information was an accident, but Bellis rejected his claim, noting that the attorney has been a member of the state bar for 30 years.
“Simply put, given his experience, there is no acceptable excuse for his misconduct,” she wrote.
As of Friday morning, Pattis’ legal license was listed as “active” in DC federal court.
The lawyer took to Twitter early Friday morning posting vague references to Thursday’s suspension.
“Edited my profile this morning,” he wrote. “Deleted lawyer.”
—norm_pattis (@PattisNorm) January 6, 2023
Later, he posted more, responding to tweets from his followers asking whether it would affect the DC trial.
“We will select the Proud Boys jury on Monday,” he later wrote.
