A controversial attorney who helped pro-Trump Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake with her litigation challenging her 2022 gubernatorial election loss has been suspended from practicing law for two months by the state bar, reported KJZZ's Wayne Schutsky.
Bryan Blehm, a Scottsdale-based lawyer who usually specializes in divorce cases, first came under investigation last November. He represented Lake in multiple cases in which she claimed the 17,000-vote victory by Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs was illegitimate, although all these cases ultimately failed for lack of credible evidence.
In addition to the two-month suspension, Blehm will be subject to a year's probation. State bar officials had asked Presiding Disciplinary Judge Margaret Downie for six months of suspension.
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Blehm received complaints to the bar over false statements he made to the court in the course of representing Lake, including the idea that 35,000 ballots were illegally added to Maricopa County tabulations in the 2022 election, which he claimed in filings was an "undisputed fact." Neither he nor Lake provided any evidence of this, and the state Supreme Court found that there was cause to move forward with sanctions based on this false claim.
Faced with a disciplinary hearing earlier this year, Blehm tried to skirt any punishment by simply not going to the hearing.
The day before the hearing, he posted to social media, “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 f—- up. At one time, the bar associations supported free speech…They do not like that I refuse to bend and kiss the ring. If it is my dignity they are after, they have knocked on the wrong door.” The day after the hearing, he followed up with a video of himself flipping the bird.
Lake is currently the leading GOP primary candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. Her likely Democratic opponent is Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Phoenix-area lawmaker and former Marine.