Co-founder of Students for Trump John Lambert was sentenced to 13 months in prison Tuesday for posing as an attorney online and collecting thousands in fraudulent legal fees.
Lambert, 25, posed as Manhattan-based lawyer “Eric Pope” of law firm Pope & Dunn. He claimed to be a graduate of NYU Law School and the University of Pennsylvania with 15 years of experience in corporate and patent law, according to the New York Daily News (NYDN).
Founder of “Students for Trump” gets slammed by judge as “cold blooded fraudster” — now sentenced to 13 months in prison
John Lambert, 25, made a litany of prestigious claims in his background.https://t.co/CEoTK9Exu9
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) May 11, 2021
In reality, Lambert was a “cold-blooded fraudster who cared not a whit about the victims of his fraud,” said the judge who sentenced him. Lambert collected $46,654 in legal fees between 2016 and 2018 by targeting people with little or no experience seeking legal advice.
In 2015, Lambert co-founded Students for Trump at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. His co-founder, Ryan Fournier, cooperated with prosecutors, according to the NYDN. (RELATED: ‘Students For Trump’ Co-Founder Pleads Guilty To $46,000 Scam, Pretending To Be Lawyer)
Students for Trump developed a nation-wide presence during the 2016 campaign, and Lambert made a number of media appearances and participated in interviews to promote the group.
“We’ve been told that we’re more organized than the actual Trump campaign,” he told The Chronicle of Higher Education at the time.
Lambert began college in 2015 before taking a break. He’s now returned to being a full-time student. “I lost focus on who I was. My ignorance was a disrespect to the law and my country,” he said in court. “My life will be forever marked by this poor choice at a young age.”
Lambert’s attorney, Gary Peters, told the NYDN that he was disappointed in the sentence and added that Lambert no longer supports Trump.
The Daily Caller reached out to Fournier for a comment on this story but did not receive a response in time for publication.