Lambda Legal Attorney Carl S. Charles is Vindicated by DOJ’s Subtle Dismissal of Its "Lawfare" Indictment Against Him
- Donald V. Watkins
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted on July 4, 2026
An Editorial Opinion
Carl S. Charles is a prominent and highly respected civil rights attorney in the Atlanta Southeastern Regional Office of Lambda Legal, a LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Charles enjoys a pristine reputation for ethics, professionalism, and competency as a litigator.
On August 19, 2025, Charles was charged in a one-count indictment with lying during a federal judicial panel's inquiry into whether he and his co-counsel engaged in "judge shopping" with respect to the filing of a lawsuit that challenged Alabama's ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
The case was referred to federal prosecutors by U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke, a Donald Trump-appointed political hack on the federal bench in Alabama.
The one count indictment, which was obtained by federal prosecutors in Montgomery, Alabama, alleges that Charles made a false statement before a grand jury or court, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623. The single perjury charge arises from the panel's question about whether Charles made a proper call to U.S. District Court Judge Myron H. Thompson's office in Montgomery before his legal team filed its lawsuit.
As I have written before, Carl Charles and his co-counsel were railroaded in a bogus “judge shopping” judicial inquiry proceeding that targeted them solely because they were representing LGBTQ+ clients in a state that has a long, ugly, and documented history of hostility toward attorneys who represented disfavored groups (e.g., Blacks, women, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ Americans, etc.) and their clients. Simply put, Carl Charles and his co-counsel were "Lawfare" victims.
The act of "judge shopping," itself, is widely practiced by federal prosecutors and corporate defense counsel as a matter of custom and without any judicial scrutiny or blowback. It is rarely done by lawyers representing plaintiffs who are members of disfavored groups, and it did not occur in Charles' case.
Judge Burke, who is based in Huntsville, Alabama, was tasked by the judicial panel with (a) running Carl Charles and his out-of-state co-counsel out of Alabama and (b) punishing Charles's in-state co-counsel. Like many devoted MAGA sycophants, Judge Burke carried out his assignment to harass Charles and his co-counsel, but he went too far in his "Lawfare" abuse of them.
The criminal indictment against Carl Charles was dismissed in a subtle fashion on February 11, 2026. The court order dismissing Charles' case was placed under seal. All documents relating to the dismissal will remain sealed until June 13, 2027.
DOJ had no legitimate criminal case against Charles. The phone call to Judge Thompson's office, which was at the center of the case, was routine, entirely legal, and totally proper.
Judge Burke and federal prosecutors in Montgomery brought this case to harass Carl Charles in the old Alabama COINTELPRO style and tradition. In legal circles, COINTELPRO is called "Lawfare" today.
The gung-ho attitude Judge Burke and his MAGA cohorts exhibited in Carl Charles' case was completely missing when Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Fuller (in Montgomery, Alabama) intentionally and repeatedly lied to judicial investigators about savagely beating his second wife Kelli and other pertinent matters. Of course, Fuller was a fellow Republican appointee to the federal bench.
On September 9, 2015, the Judicial Conference of the United States issued a Report to Congress certifying that Judge Fuller: (a) committed multiple acts of perjury, (b) gave repeated false statements to federal law enforcement officials during the course of an official investigation, and (c) obstructed the investigation. Yet, no federal judge in Washington, D.C., or in Atlanta, or in Montgomery, Alabama referred Fuller’s case to the DOJ for the initiation of criminal charges against him. In fact, Fuller was never charged with any crime for lying to judicial investigators and obstructing justice.
The DOJ's dismissal of the criminal indictment against Carl Charles vindicated him. Simultaneously, it exposed MAGA Judge Liles Burke as a "Lawfare" ringleader in Alabama.
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