The State Bar of Arizona (SBA) is disbarring another conservative attorney, Vlad Gagic, after he loudly objected on social media to the prosecution of one of his clients, whom he believed was innocent. Gagic told me he acted as a whistleblower, exposing systemic corruption, prosecutorial misconduct, judicial bias and political retaliation.
The situation arose while Gagic was defending his former client, Jamaal Pennington, a young black man who Gagic became convinced was wrongly accused of sex trafficking and pimping. Gagic told me he uncovered and documented massive misconduct by the prosecution. When Pennington’s accuser, the key witness against him, recanted her story and said she had identified the wrong man, Gagic told me he discovered witness tampering, with a detective coaching the victim via Facebook, giving her money and supporting her GoFundMe. He said he found falsified DNA warrants, fabricated confessions, missing evidence and coordinated accuser stories.
Gagic asked Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell for an integrity review to reassess the case after his findings, but she refused. After that, he began criticizing her on social media. Mitchell was already under heavy criticism in Arizona for representing the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, asking for sanctions twice against Kari Lake and her attorneys in Lake’s election lawsuits.
Mitchell filed a bar complaint against Gagic, and the SBA suspended his license for one year. After Gagic continued to loudly complain on social media about corruption, the SBA moved to disbar him.
The FBI (under the Biden administration) showed up at his home, with one agent seen on Gagic’s home surveillance brandishing a firearm. Through public records requests, Gagic discovered that Mitchell had called him a “sovereign citizen,” which he believed was language meant to make him look dangerous. Gagic, who served in the Marines, has zero connection to anything remotely like a sovereign citizen.
Mitchell obtained a restraining order against him — what judge would dare not grant one to the powerful DA? She also got law enforcement to obtain a search warrant for his X data, including his DMs, which went nowhere.
Gagic believes he is the only attorney the SBA has ever disbarred without consent, default or a hearing on the merits. The SBA refused many of his requests during the proceedings, which are routinely granted to other attorneys undergoing discipline. He told me from the beginning that the SBA made it clear to him that his disbarment was a done deal.
Gagic requested his file from the FBI, and it reads like classic free speech suppression. “Gagic has made hundreds of anti-authority posts on his account against judges, law enforcement officers, and government employees,” the FBI said. “Any government official that Gagic comes in contact with inevitably becomes Gagic’s next online target.”
Notice there is nothing in there about violence or threats of violence, merely the phrase “anti-authority posts.”
The FBI’s “Summary of Predication” said Gagic, who has no criminal history nor even previous bar discipline, “committed federal crimes and poses a threat to national security.” But the only evidence cited is allegedly “targeting government employees and law enforcement officials … to harass and ridicule the individuals…” The summary then jumps to a conclusion that he’s violating federal anti-stalking laws.
However, if rudely slamming people on social media violates anti-stalking laws, then half the people on social media would be guilty and prosecuted. Gagic didn’t call to “86” someone. And Gagic wasn’t just calling people out over their political views; he was calling them out because he believed they put an innocent man in prison.
It was easy to nail Gagic due to vague, broad — and I believe unconstitutional — bar ethical rules. Most bars have ethical rules that prohibit attorneys from criticizing elected officials or judges. E.R. 8.2(a) states, “A lawyer shall not make a statement that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to its truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge, adjudicatory officer or public legal officer, or of a candidate for election or appointment to judicial or legal office.” The bars get to decide what criticism is “false.” It has been heavily used against election attorneys challenging election fraud.
Gagic testified at a state legislative hearing in January regarding SBA abuses. Last year, the Phoenix chapter of the National Action Network demanded the DOJ investigate the SBA over its treatment of Gagic and several other attorneys. The letter said, “Attorney Vladimir Gagic’s case represents one of the most egregious due process violations in recent Arizona disciplinary history.”
Phoenix New Times journalist Stephen Lemons has written extensively about Gagic’s situation. Gagic discovered that Mitchell’s husband, Paul Stout, who was at the time her fiancé, used at least one anonymous account on X to attack him. Lemons said, “Stout admitted to his use of the burner accounts … during a September hearing about the protective order.” Lemons called Stout for a comment, and instead of answering, Stout called the police on him merely for making the phone call.
The bar disciplinary judge indicated at a mitigation/aggravation hearing in April that she would be releasing her opinion disbarring Gagic within 30 days.
Gagic has become a defender of conservatives victimized by bullies on X. When a decent conservative is attacked, he’s often the first one to jump in and challenge the bully, usually resulting in the bully blocking him. Social media is known for being a sewer, so we NEED people with guts like Gagic who are willing to dive in and clamp back at the nastiest people on there. He’s gotten numerous trolls off my back.
But since he’s just a regular guy with no power, taking on the powerful SBA and Mitchell, he never had a chance. They’ve taken away his livelihood while an innocent man sits in prison.