Tennessee Attorneys Claim “Felonious” Conduct by Appellate Court Clerk’s Office

by Sharon Rondeau

(Jan. 15, 2026) — On December 19, 2025, Tennessee attorneys Van Irion and Russell Egli filed a petition for a Writ of Mandamus and/or Prohibition with the U.S. Supreme Court alleging serious misconduct on the part of the clerk’s office of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals and by extension, of its chief judge, Jeffrey Sutton.

Located in Cincinnati, the court hears cases on appeal from federal district courts in the states of Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Michigan.

Irion and Egli’s petition was docketed January 5 and assigned case number 25-785 with a return date of February 4.

In practice since 2005, Irion is a patent, business-law, intellectual-property and civil-litigation attorney based in Knoxville. He holds a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of California at Davis and a J.D. from the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.

Readers will recall Irion represented LCDR Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III (Ret) in a McMinn County, TN criminal case arising from his discovery of systemic corruption in the selection of Tennessee grand-jury foremen and other violations of law.

Also of Knoxville and in practice since 2005, Egli specializes in family, estate planning and insurance law; wills and trusts, corporate law, DUI, personal injury and appellate law. 

Irion represents Glenn Whiting of Athens (McMinn County), TN in three cases brought against the City of Athens and several of its public officials wherein Whiting claimed retaliation for speaking out against what he saw as disparate treatment toward certain individuals on the part of the city police chief.

Subsequently, a blog post on Irion’s website reads, several city personnel engaged in a conspiracy “to condemn a commercial building held in trust by several of Whiting’s family members in retaliation for Whiting continuing his free speech activities. The family trust was in the process of repairing the building so that it could be sold. However, once the city condemned the building, all plans to repair the building were forced to stop. To this day, this is the only time the City of Athens has condemned and prohibited repairs to a commercial building.”

Whiting is the son of Eugene and Norma Whiting, who also did not hesitate to voice their concerns about public corruption in McMinn County, of which Athens is the county seat. After spending several years in a nursing home from which she communicated with The Post & Email for a time, Mrs. Whiting passed away in June 2024.

Having appealed rulings in the Whiting matter from U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee Travis McDonough to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Irion encountered obstruction by the court clerk of the judicial review necessary to issue orders.

Instead, the clerk herself issued orders absent approval from any judge of the court, and, when challenged, issued an order initiating disciplinary action against Egli and Irion.

In their “Statement of the Case,” the attorneys wrote (page 10 of Petition, top numbering):

This case presents Record evidence that the Office of the Clerk of the 6th Circuit has feloniously usurped and asserted the authority of the Court on numerous occasions without permission of said Court. The Petitioner also presents Record evidence that 6th Circuit Court staffers have manipulated the electronic filing system to prevent notifications of certain documents filed with the Court being forwarded to ANY authorized judges.

The September 18, 2025 disciplinary “order,” Irion and Egli wrote on page 8, “purportedly requires attorneys Van R. Irion and Russel Egli to ‘SHOW CAUSE why they should not be sanctioned and/or disciplined for the conduct described in this order…Said order fails to identify any Article III Judge authorizing its entry. To the best of Petitioners’ knowledge said ‘order’ was drafted and entered by the Clerk of said Court on her own ‘authority,’ arguably in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 505. Upon contacting the Court, the Clerk refused to identify any judge, Rule, or standing order authorizing entry of said order to show cause. Said order violates several due process requirements set forth in the 6th Circuit’s Local Rules regarding attorney discipline…”

The referenced law reads:

18 U.S. Code § 505 – Seals of courts; signatures of judges or court officers

Whoever forges the signature of any judge, register, or other officer of any court of the United States, or of any Territory thereof, or forges or counterfeits the seal of any such court, or knowingly concurs in using any such forged or counterfeit signature or seal, for the purpose of authenticating any proceeding or document, or tenders in evidence any such proceeding or document with a false or counterfeit signature of any such judge, register, or other officer, or a false or counterfeit seal of the court, subscribed or attached thereto, knowing such signature or seal to be false or counterfeit, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

The malfeasance Irion encountered was not limited to the Sixth Circuit, filings show. McDonough, an article posted on Irion’s website blog contends, “frustrated discovery by denying critical depositions and refusing to sanction the defense for intimidating witnesses and other unlawful activities. Even so, Whiting was able to persuade some jurors at trial and the case concluded with a hung jury. At the follow up trial, McDonough allowed even less evidence to be presented, and the jurors quickly sided with the city against Whiting. Whiting has two signed affidavits from former Athens mayor Burris which admit that the city employees lied to him and to the city council to cover up what Burris called political retaliation against Whiting. McDonough refused to allow mayor Burris to be deposed and that information never reached the jury.“

“The last straw came when, after months of Irion questioning the Clerk’s office about these issues, the Clerk began disciplinary proceedings against Irion,” a January 5 press release about the Writ states. “Even more shocking, that Court’s Rules about attorney discipline require such proceedings to be initiated only by the Court’s Chief Judge. Yet the disciplinary order issued against attorney Irion, again, is signed by the Clerk, not a judge. It also fails to identify any judge of that Court, let alone the Chief Judge, as authorizing the discipline. That is when Irion filed his Petition with the Supreme Court asking them to step in and investigate what is happening at the 6^th Circuit Clerk’s Office.”

The Sixth Circuit’s purported response to a filing in case Whiting’s case #25-5424 appears as (pp. 3, 10, and 12 [top numbering]):

ENTERED BY ORDER OF THE COURT
Kelly L. Stephens, Clerk
/s/

A letter in Appendix D (page 13, top numbering) states that “the Court” issued the enclosed Order in this case” and bears the clerk’s typed name. However, the “order,” said to pertain to cases 24-5918, 24-5919 and 25-5424, is identically “signed.”

To the Court, Irion and Egli posed six questions concerning staffers’ authority to issue orders without the involvement of a judge and if such “delegation” on the part of a judge is unconstitutional.

The attorneys additionally express their “reasonable suspicion” (p. 23) that the court clerk “locked” motions they filed so the circuit judges would not receive notification of their filing, violating their First Amendment rights (p. 24). They also question the authenticity of the clerk-issued “orders” and ask, “Why are so many of the questionable Clerk-orders denying judicial review entered as attachments or exhibits, rather than primary docket entries?”

The petition is below.

The press release on Irion’s website asks concerned parties to file Amicus briefs in support of the petition. “If a Court openly ignores its own Rules, with no possibility of review by a higher authority, no reasonable person can trust that Court,” it posits. “Where Courts refuse to enforce the most foundational Rules of procedure, the entire system of justice is in danger of collapsing. If the Courts themselves are violating the law, the American people cannot and should not rely on the Judicial Branch to enforce any law. Such a system, allowed to continue unabated, is nothing more than anarchy disguised as order.”

“Any attorney or organization that is concerned about the rule of law, needs to take note, and get involved,” the post continues. “Whatever substantive issues concern you, if the courts themselves are ignoring the law, then petition to the courts on any subject is a waste of time. Allowing corrupt courts to cover themselves with the disguise of legitimacy, is worse than having no justice system at all. If you care about any of the issues you litigate before the courts of this country, you cannot ignore this issue…If you care about restoration of the rule of law, and preservation of the American system of justice on its most fundamental level, we respectfully request that you add your opinions and reputations in support of our Petition.“

Citizens wishing to support Irion and Egli’s effort may do so here.