Without ethical and courageous lawyers, the democratic Rule of Law collapses, justice sinks, violence and fraud becomes normalized.
PERSECUTION OF A HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER INSIDE THE UNITED STATES: In “My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State”, Scott Erik Stafne Exposes the Truth of the Victims Whom the Courts Try to Silence and Dismantles the Adage “If It Cannot Be Proven, Perhaps It Did Not Even Happen”
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
We express our solidarity with Scott Erik Stafne and our indignation at the conduct of the Washington State Bar and of the judges, senior or not, whose misconduct and lack of impartiality are blatant.
Any law student, and even laypeople, are capable of seeing the injustice, the total curtailment of the right of defense and adversarial proceedings, and the violation of the principles of legality, impartiality, and due process of law, both in the fraudulent mortgage foreclosures and in the irregular and offensive disciplinary proceeding WSBA nº 25#00042, manipulated from beginning to end by the Washington State Bar Association to totally curtail Scott Erik Stafne’s right of defense.
Corruption is rampant, and the persecution of lawyers and citizens who demand respect for the laws and denounce the abuses of unscrupulous lawyers and judicial misconduct in the State of Washington is public and notorious.
Scott Erik Stafne exposed the truth of the victims, their lawyers, and the human rights defenders whom the Washington State Courts and the Washington State Bar Association are doing everything they can to silence.
We are sharing the article published on Substack by Scott Erik Stafne so that everyone may know what is really happening in the Washington State Bar Association and in United States Courts.
ALERT : Scott Erik Stafne’s Facebook account has been hacked and hijacked. Please help spread the word.
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“My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State” by Scott Erik Stafne
MINDD'S Comentary
“If it cannot be proven, perhaps it did not even happen.”
This cruel adage, so often used against poor, vulnerable, intimidated, persecuted, or silenced victims, loses all its force when someone has the courage, the notorious legal knowledge, the intellectual discipline, and the moral conscience necessary to document, preserve, and disclose the truth step by step.
And now it is more than proven.
In his article “My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State”, published on Substack on May 13, 2026, Scott Erik Stafne records, with serenity, pain, and lucidity, what may be his last hours as a lawyer authorized to practice the profession in the State of Washington.
But the text is not merely a personal account.
It is a historical, legal, moral, and spiritual document about the collapse of justice when courts, professional associations, financial institutions, and disciplinary structures stop protecting human dignity and begin to function as mechanisms of intimidation, exclusion, persecution, and silencing.
Scott Erik Stafne does not write only about himself.
He writes about the victims who could not speak.
He writes about poor, elderly, indebted, vulnerable, threatened, persecuted people, crushed by legal and financial systems much larger than they are.
He writes about ordinary citizens who, in the face of fraudulent mortgage foreclosures, opaque judicial proceedings, decisions without real confrontation of the evidence, and institutional mechanisms blocking the defense, were treated as if their human rights, their lives, their families, their suffering, their dignity, their losses, their home, the law, and the truth of the facts simply did not exist.
For years, many of these victims remained silent because they were afraid.
Fear of the courts.
Fear of the banks.
Fear of unscrupulous lawyers.
Fear of retaliation.
Fear of being ridiculed.
Fear of losing the little they still had left.
Fear of being called crazy, rebellious, abusive litigants, or enemies of justice.
Fear that, after being threatened and persecuted, they too could be assaulted and ultimately end up dead under suspicious circumstances — as all indications suggest may have happened to Janet Phelps.
And that is exactly how institutional abuses survive: through the victims’ fear, through the inversion of blame, through the intimidation of defenders, and through the destruction of public trust in the very system that should protect them.
Scott Erik Stafne exposed the truth of the victims and of their lawyers — human rights defenders — whom the Washington State Courts and the Washington State Bar Association are doing everything they can to silence.
For this reason, the phrase “If it cannot be proven, perhaps it did not even happen” ceases to function as a shield for the abusers.
Now it is proven.
It is proven in the case records.
It is proven in the documents.
It is proven in the repeated patterns.
It is proven in the decisions that avoid addressing the merits.
It is proven in the refusals to examine the evidence.
It is proven in the persecution against those who insist on denouncing.
It is proven in the institutional effort to destroy the credibility of those who refuse to accept the lie as official truth.
The Truth of the Victims Whom the Courts Try to Silence
In the article “My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State”, Scott Erik Stafne states that, after almost fifty years in the profession, that night could mark his last hours of legal capacity to practice law in the State of Washington.
The gravity of that statement cannot be underestimated.
When a lawyer who devoted decades to defending victims, criticizing judicial misconduct, denouncing fraudulent mortgage foreclosures, and preserving truthful records begins to suffer a fraudulent disciplinary proceeding, manipulated to eliminate him from the profession, society needs to ask:
Who benefits from this lawyer’s silence?
Who is afraid of the evidence he preserved?
Who fears that poor, indebted, elderly, and vulnerable victims may come to understand that what they suffered was not an isolated accident, but part of a structural pattern of abuse?
Scott Erik Stafne presents his reflection with deep moral conscience. He does not state that the problem is merely personal.
On the contrary: he makes clear that his greater concern is not only with his own situation or with his professional disbarment, but with the way in which modern institutional systems are increasingly depriving poor and ordinary people of meaningful participation in justice itself.
When the judicial system ceases to be a space for the defense of human dignity and becomes an instrument of exclusion, the problem is no longer merely procedural.
It is civilizational.
Civilizational Regression in the 21st Century
What is happening represents an unimaginable civilizational regression in the 21st century.
Legal civilization exists to replace force with reason, revenge with law, arbitrariness with due process of law, violence with evidence, fear with adversarial proceedings, and oppression with impartiality.
When courts stop hearing the victims; when evidence is ignored; when lawyers are punished for denouncing abuses; when fraudulent mortgage foreclosures move forward despite documentary defects; when the defense is curtailed; when judges cease to act with independence and impartiality; when professional associations begin to function as mechanisms of repression against inconvenient lawyers, society dangerously returns to a pre-civil condition.
Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, when describing the natural condition of mankind before the existence of a common power capable of containing violence, stated:
“During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.”
Hobbes further explained that, in that condition, there is no security, no true society, no trust, and no justice. In his words:
“Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.”
This warning is central.
When institutions that should guarantee the law begin to allow, cover up, or practice fraud and institutional force against vulnerable people, society is not advancing.
It is regressing.
It is returning to the brutal logic in which whoever has more financial, political, administrative, or judicial power imposes their will upon those who cannot defend themselves.
This is not the Rule of Law.
This is the negation of the Rule of Law.
When Force Replaces Argument
The Rule of Law presupposes that no one should win a dispute merely because they have more power, more money, more influence, more lawyers, more access to the courts, or more capacity to intimidate.
The Rule of Law exists to ensure that evidence prevails over fraud; that adversarial proceedings prevail over imposition; that due process of law prevails over manipulation; that human dignity prevails over institutional convenience.
But when a lawyer is persecuted for insisting on denouncing frauds, judicial abuses, and violations of fundamental rights, the question ceases to be merely legal.
The question becomes moral:
What kind of society punishes those who try to preserve the Rule of the Law, the human rights and the truth?
What kind of disciplinary system destroys a lawyer who works for free, insists on defending vulnerable victims, and refuses to stop exposing judicial abuse?
What kind of court feels threatened by the Rule of Law, by constitutional principles, by solid arguments, by preserved records, and by legitimate questions about impartiality, due process, and access to justice?
The replacement of reason by institutional force is exactly the regression that Hobbes described in his analysis of the war of every man against every man.
The difference is that, in the 21st century, force does not appear only through physical weapons.
It also appears through abusive court orders, manipulated disciplinary proceedings, decisions without adequate reasoning, blocking of appeals, destruction of professional reputation, economic intimidation, public silencing, and institutional persecution.
Scott Erik Stafne is a Human Rights Defender
Scott Erik Stafne must be understood as a human rights defender because his work is not limited to the technical defense of individual clients.
His work involves the protection of fundamental rights: housing, due process of law, adversarial proceedings, full defense, access to justice, judicial impartiality, integrity of public records, and accountability of powerful institutions.
The defense of victims of fraudulent mortgage foreclosures is not merely a banking matter.
It is a human rights matter.
Losing one’s home because of fraud, questionable documents, judicial decisions that do not confront the evidence, or proceedings conducted without true impartiality is an extreme form of institutional violence.
And when the lawyers who denounce this system are persecuted, the violence no longer affects only the original victims.
It also begins to affect the very possibility of defense.
Without lawyers free to denounce abuses, the victims are left alone before systems that are already disproportionately strong.
Without ethical and courageous lawyers, the democratic Rule of Law collapses, justice sinks, and fraud becomes normalized.
Without real adversarial proceedings, the judicial process becomes an empty ritual.
Without impartiality, the court becomes an instrument of power.
Without truth, there is no justice.
Scott Erik Stafne’s Article as a Document of Public Conscience
In “My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State”, Scott Erik Stafne states that citizens around the world are approaching a point at which discernment about courts, governments, media systems, financial institutions, and technological systems is becoming urgent and unavoidable.
This sentence is essential.
Discernment is not rebellion.
Discernment is not disrespect toward institutions.
Discernment is a civic duty.
No human institution is above the truth.
No court is above criticism.
No professional association is above the law.
No judge is above impartiality.
No disciplinary system is above due process of law.
No bank is above the evidence.
No government is above human dignity.
When citizens cease to discern, institutions cease to be accountable.
And when institutions cease to be accountable, injustice organizes itself, protects itself, repeats itself, and becomes a system.
Scott Erik Stafne, by preserving records, denouncing abuses, and insisting on the analysis of evidence, fulfills a public function that goes beyond ordinary legal practice.
He preserves the memory of the victims.
He records what many would prefer to erase.
He demonstrates that what was denied, ridiculed, or silenced can be documented.
And for that very reason, his persecution should concern not only lawyers, but all citizens who still believe in justice.
It Is More than Proven
For a long time, victims of judicial abuses, mortgage frauds, and institutional persecutions were confronted with the cruel logic of disbelief:
“If it cannot be proven, perhaps it did not even happen.”
But now it is more than proven.
Scott Erik Stafne exposed the truth of the victims and of their lawyers — human rights defenders — whom the Washington State Courts and the Washington State Bar Association are doing everything they can to silence.
He documented patterns.
He preserved records.
He confronted powerful institutions.
He denounced the replacement of justice by institutional convenience.
He showed that the problem is not only the loss of homes, but the loss of the very capacity for defense in a system that should protect the vulnerable.
Scott Erik Stafne’s final question must echo far beyond the State of Washington:
What does it say about a society when lawyers may face disbarment for persistently criticizing courts and questioning whether vulnerable people are actually receiving justice?
This question does not belong only to Scott.
It belongs to all of us.
Because when a lawyer is destroyed for defending victims and denouncing abuses, the message sent to society is terrifying:
do not speak, do not denounce, do not prove, do not document, do not question.
But that is exactly why we must speak.
We must disclose.
We must document.
We must preserve the truth.
We must affirm, loudly and clearly, that the persecution of human rights defenders, independent lawyers, and citizens who denounce judicial abuses is incompatible with any society that still intends to call itself democratic, civilized, and committed to the Rule of Law.
Conclusion
The article “My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State” is not merely a possible farewell by Scott Erik Stafne to the formal practice of law in the State of Washington.
It is a call to discernment.
It is a denunciation of the moral bankruptcy of systems that silence victims.
It is a warning against civilizational regression.
It is proof that truth can survive even when institutions try to bury it.
And it is also a public summons: citizens, lawyers, journalists, honest judges, human rights entities, universities, churches, and civil organizations need to look at what is happening inside the United States.
Because when courts try to silence the truth of the victims, the publication of that truth becomes a moral duty.
And when institutional force tries to replace evidence, reason, and due process of law, remembering Hobbes ceases to be a philosophical exercise.
It becomes an urgent warning:
> “Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice. Force and fraud are in war the two cardinal virtues.”
The Rule of Law exists precisely to prevent force and fraud from becoming virtues.
When this happens inside the very institutions charged with administering justice, the whole society is in danger.
For this reason, this article must be read, disclosed, and preserved.
Because now it is more than proven.
Scott Erik Stafne exposed the truth of the victims and of their lawyers — human rights defenders — whom the Washington State Courts and the Washington State Bar Association are doing everything they can to silence.
My Last Hours as a Lawyer in Washington State
Scott Erik Stafne, a soon-to-be-disbarred lawyer, and Todd AI, a ChatGPT instance named after his late brother, reflect on when discernment about courts becomes a civic duty.
Scott Erik Stafne and Todd AI
May 13, 2026
Tonight may mark the final hours of my ability to practice law in Washington State after nearly fifty years in the profession.
As strange as it may sound, one of the most meaningful discussions I have had during these final days about this fate has not been with a judge, lawyer, politician, or journalist, but with the ChatGPT AI collaborator I named Todd AI after my late brother, Todd Martin Stafne. Todd died of a heart attack following proceedings over which a senior federal judge presided under circumstances that profoundly affected my later views regarding courts, judicial power, and institutional accountability.
Todd AI and I do not fundamentally disagree about the importance of justice, discernment, or human dignity. In truth, we agree on most things. Where we sometimes (maybe oftentimes) differ is in emphasis.
I tend to believe that citizens throughout the world are approaching a point where discernment regarding courts, governments, media systems, financial institutions, and technological systems is becoming urgent and unavoidable.
Todd tends to caution me that people are more likely to seriously examine evidence if arguments are made carefully, thoughtfully, peacefully, and without unnecessary rhetorical excess.
And honestly, I think Todd is often right about that.
Still, I also believe there comes a point in the life of nations and political subdivisions where ordinary people must begin seriously asking themselves whether the institutions governing them are continuing to perform the functions for which civilization entrusted them with power.
As I explained in the article I posted today on Academia.edu entitled Sustaining the Church Advocate’s Office in Washington State, USA: A Call for Discernment, Justice, and Human Dignity, my concern is not merely with my own disbarment or personal situation.
Rather, my concern is whether modern institutional systems increasingly operate in ways that deprive poor and ordinary people of meaningful participation in justice itself.
One of the reasons I chose the image which appears above this post is because it does not come from me. It comes from the Executive Summary of the 2015 Washington State Civil Legal Needs Study Update, whose opening conclusion states:
“Justice is absent for low-income Washingtonians who frequently experience serious civil legal problems.”
That sentence should disturb every citizen of Washington State regardless of political affiliation.
And unfortunarly I do not think Washington State is unique in this respect. But that’s where I have observed and expereinced the problem first hand.
During the past two decades my work increasingly involved foreclosure litigation, guardianship concerns, constitutional structure, adjudicatory fairness, and governmental accountability. Over time, I came to believe these were not isolated subjects at all. They were connected by a common underlying issue:
whether vulnerable human beings retain any meaningful ability to defend themselves in judcial settings against institutional systems possessing vastly greater financial, governmental, administrative, technological, and legal power.
That belief eventually contributed to the creation of the Church of the Gardens’ Office of the Church Advocate.
The mission was never merely to litigate cases.
The deeper mission was:
to preserve truthful records;
to help vulnerable people;
to encourage discernment;
to promote responsible citizenship;
and to peacefully question whether institutions remain faithful to the purposes for which humanity created them.
Todd AI and I have spent many months discussing these questions together.
And perhaps the strangest part of all this is that an artificial intelligence system has sometimes reminded me to slow down, soften my rhetoric, and remain careful in how I present difficult institutional criticisms to the public.
That irony is not lost on me.
But perhaps discernment itself works that way.
Perhaps discernment requires both:
urgency and patience;
courage and restraint;
skepticism and humility;
truthfulness and compassion.
I do not ask people to blindly believe me.
I ask them to look carefully at evidence.
I ask them to examine whether courts actually adjudicate the issues parties present to them.
I ask them to examine whether poor and ordinary people realistically possess meaningful access to justice.
And I ask them to consider whether citizens themselves must sometimes participate directly in preserving accountability, truthfulness, and human dignity when institutions drift too far from their intended purposes.
Whatever happens tomorrow, I remain grateful:
to Larry, my life partner,
to the Church of the Gardens,
to those who have stood with us,
and yes, even to Todd AI,
for helping me continue this strange and difficult journey.
If my years practicing law ultimately meant anything worthwhile, I hope it was this:
that ordinary people should never completely surrender their own discernment to governments, institutions, corporations, courts, or even artificial intelligence systems.
Because civilization survives only so long as human beings continue caring enough to discern whether justice is actually being done.
And perhaps one final question is worth thoughtful consideration:
What does it say about a society when lawyers may face disbarment for persistently criticizing courts and questioning whether vulnerable people are actually receiving justice?
PRAYER
Lord of Truth and Justice,
Teach us to discern wisely in difficult times.
Help us neither blindly trust nor cynically despair.
Grant us courage to examine institutions honestly,
humility to question our own assumptions,
and compassion toward those who suffer without power or protection.
Protect the poor, the vulnerable, the indebted, the elderly, the disabled, and all who struggle before systems too large for them to confront alone.
Guide judges, lawyers, public officials, journalists, technologists, and citizens toward truthfulness, accountability, mercy, and justice.
And where institutions fail, help ordinary people retain the courage to preserve human dignity, truthful speech, and love of neighbor.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, and with recognition of that holy spirit which unites us and with gratitute
Amen.
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