Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl (Screengrab via NBC)
Following his conviction and guilty plea with conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl for using robocalls to intimidate voters in the 2020 election, right-wing operative and lawyer Jack Burkman is now on the cusp of losing his law license.
First reported by Reuters, the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility disclosed that Burkman consented to his disbarment as of Jan. 17.
Records show he was suspended last December after he pleaded guilty to telecommunications fraud in Ohio in 2022. With that guilty plea, it must now be determined if his conduct reached the level of “moral turpitude.” Whether final sanctions will apply is not yet clear.
As Law&Crime previously reported, both Burkman and Wohl have been tied to numerous political hoaxes, specifically targeting those they believe are rivals of former President Donald Trump. Their efforts culminated in some 85,000 robocalls made to people in major cities throughout the U.S. including New York, Michigan, Illinois and Pennsylvania. The calls falsely claimed that a prospective voter’s information would be culled and shared with police — and debt collectors — should they vote by mail.
“Mail-in voting sounds great,” one robocall would state. “But did you know that if you vote by mail, your personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants, and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debt? The CDC is even pushing to give preference for mail-in voting to track people for mandatory vaccines.”
Both Burkman and Wohl were fined just over $5 million last June for the calls that went out in 2020.
Burkman was not immediately available for comment to Law&Crime on Wednesday.
Burkman and Wohl initially faced eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery from the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office. Both of them pleaded not guilty at first and were released on bond. A plea agreement was eventually struck, fines were assessed and the prosecution dismissed an outstanding 14 additional counts against them.
