AUSTIN – The same attorney who filed a $100 million defamation lawsuit against a man who labeled him a drug addict and white nationalist has agreed to a one-year suspension of his law license for making threats against the same individual.
While the criminal charges surrounding Jason Lee Van Dyke, the leader of Proud Boys, have been making headlines for some time, the attorney first became news when he brought his defamation lawsuit against Thomas Retzlaff last year.
According to the State Bar of Texas, the suspension was entered on Feb. 21 and found that on March 1, 2018, Van Dyke made threats of physical violence to Retzlaff, the complainant, “thereby committing criminal acts that reflect adversely on Respondent’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer.”
Van Dyke’s suspension begins March 1 and ends Feb. 29, 2020. The attorney has also been ordered to pay the bar’s expenses, which total $7,500.
Furthermore, Van Dyke must seek mental health treatment.