Exclusive: New DOJ voting lawyer worked to overturn 2020 election and represented George Floyd’s killer

A lawyer who was active in lawsuits seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, and later represented the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of killing George Floyd, is the latest attorney to be hired by the Trump Department of Justice’s Voting Section, according to court filings reviewed by Democracy Docket.

William F. Mohrman, a longtime Minneapolis lawyer and former partner at the firm Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, entered his first appearance on behalf of the United States last week in the department’s lawsuit seeking Georgia’s unredacted statewide voter registration records.

Recent court filings identify Mohrman as a senior counsel in the Civil Rights Division’s Voting Section, making him the latest in a growing list of attorneys added to the section since last year who have worked on 2020 election challenges or teamed up with prominent election deniers.

Eric Neff, the current acting head of the section, has a web of ties to election-conspiracy theorists, Democracy Docket reported. 

The section has simultaneously shifted away from its traditional voting rights enforcement priorities and toward lawsuits seeking sensitive voter records from states and counties around the country.

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the period after the 2020 election, Mohrman worked on cases aimed at blocking certification of Biden’s wins in two key swing states — Arizona and Georgia — as well as in the U.S. Congress.

Court records show Mohrman was listed as counsel in litigation brought by the Wisconsin Voters Alliance, including a lawsuit that sought to block congressional certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory shortly before Jan. 6, 2021.

The lawsuit advanced allegations of election irregularities across several battleground states and sought to halt the certification process. 

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg dismissed the case, describing the claims as meritless and criticizing the legal theory behind the challenge.

Mohrman and his firm were also involved in similar challenges in key battleground states. In Arizona, court records list him as counsel in Stevenson v. Ducey, an election contest filed on December 4, 2020, that sought to vacate the certification of Joe Biden’s victory and allow the state legislature to appoint electors instead.

The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the case just three days later.

In Georgia, Mohrman was listed as co-counsel in Wood v. Raffensperger II, one of several aggressive post-election lawsuits filed by or associated with notorious election denier attorney L. Lin Wood. That case attempted to block certification of Georgia’s results and impose new rules on absentee ballots and election procedures. 

Like nearly all of the firm’s 2020-related efforts, these cases were unsuccessful, with courts finding insufficient evidence or lack of standing.

Mohrman was also involved in litigation challenging the use of private election administration grants in Wisconsin’s largest cities. Those lawsuits formed part of a broader campaign by conservative activists and anti-voting groups seeking to reshape election access after Trump’s defeat.

Although Mohrman was not as publicly prominent as his law partner Erick Kaardal, court records show the two worked together on multiple election-related lawsuits filed after the 2020 election. Kaardal became one of the most visible attorneys involved in efforts to challenge Biden’s victory and was later referred for possible disciplinary action by Boasberg over litigation related to the certification challenge.

Before joining DOJ, Mohrman gained national attention as an attorney for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin following Chauvin’s conviction for murdering George Floyd. Mohrman argued that extensive pretrial publicity and security concerns deprived Chauvin of a fair trial, and sought to overturn the conviction on appeal. 

Courts rejected those arguments.

Mohrman’s appearance in the Voting Section comes as the department pursues an aggressive nationwide campaign to obtain voter registration data from states and local election officials. Voting rights advocates have warned that the effort could expose sensitive voter information and facilitate aggressive voter roll purges that disenfranchise eligible voters.