JEFFERSON CITY (St. Louis Record) — Washington attorney Michael G. Hoehn has been reciprocally disbarred following an April 20 Missouri Supreme Court order over allegations he mishandled settlement funds from litigation over an inauguration day prayer breakfast in 2017.
The Missouri Supreme Court's action against Hoehn came after the attorney was voluntarily disbarred in October by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals after he allegedly used advanced funds designated for litigation costs for his own purposes. Those purposes include a gym membership and his phone bill, according to specification of charges filed with the D.C. court in March of last year.
Hoehn's disbarment in Missouri was effectively immediately, according to the Supreme Court's order.
The high court also ordered Hoehn to pay costs.
Disciplinary proceedings against Hoehn stem from a lawsuit filed in January 2017 in District of Columbia Superior Court by the Rev. Merrie Turner over the inauguration day prayer breakfast in Trump International Hotel's Presidential Ballroom that same month, according to the specification of charges. Turner retained Hoehn after the hotel tried to get out of the contract to hold the breakfast by invoking a "force majeure," or superior force, clause.
Turner sued the 58th Presidential Inauguration Committee, which he felt was the real culprit in the dispute
The breakfast moved forward as planned but Turner pursued his litigation, seeking $1 million in damages for tortious interference with contractual relations.
Prior to filing the lawsuit, Hoehn reached out to an associate of Trump's then campaign Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, to resolve the issue without litigation.
Manafort now is serving a more than seven-year sentence over charges that came out of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Gates, who had been a Trump campaign adviser, in December was sentenced to 45 days in jail and three years probation over allegations that also emerged from Meuller's investigation.
The allegations against Manafort and Gates are unrelated to Turner's litigation over the inauguration day prayer breakfast .
The case ultimately settled for $40,000, much of which Hoehn allegedly misused for his own purposes. His failure to pay Turner from the settlement fund lead to Turner's complaint against Hoehn.
Formal charges against Hoehn included misappropriating entrusted funds.