One of the keynote speakers at this month’s “Unite the Right 2” rally in Washington, D.C. was a Confederate apologist named Charles Edward Lincoln III. While he was presented as a “civil-rights activist from New Orleans,” it wasn’t mentioned that he is, in fact, a disbarred ex-lawyer who has a history of criminal convictions, including a felony conviction for using a false Social Security number, and a long list of complaints against him by clients for alleged scams.
At the far-right event, Lincoln ranted that America’s modern ills, including mass incarceration, can be traced back to the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War.
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In September 1996, Lincoln convinced the Alvarados to withhold mortgage payments to the mortgage’s holder and give them to him. Lincoln gave the Alvarados a fake receipt claiming the money had been deposited to the clerk of the court, according to a complaint filed by the Alvarados and cited as the basis for his disbarment. (On his website, Lincoln attacks the local government generally, alleging a conspiracy, but doesn’t address the charge directly.)
In reality, Lincoln was depositing the money into his own bank account—a checking account he had opened at Wells Fargo under a false Social Security number. The misrepresentation was discovered by the FBI in the course of investigating the Alvarados’ allegations against Lincoln.
Facing five felony charges, he made a deal to plead guilty to one count of false representation of a Social Security number in exchange for having four other charges dropped. Lincoln accepted a sentence of three years’ probation and revocation of his license to practice law in Texas. Pleading guilty to a felony resulted in other states initiating disbarment proceedings
