COLUMBIA, S.C. — A federal judge has rejected a bid by convicted S.C. lawyer and Trump supporter David Johnston of Charleston to quickly get his law license back.

In legal filings in the District of Columbia federal court, former lawyer Johnston, whose law license was suspended after his 2022 arrest, argued he would have a better chance of getting it reinstated if a judge granted an early termination to his ongoing 36-month probation.

Johnston made about $200,000 a year before his law firm, George Sink P.A., fired him for participating in the Capitol riot, according to court records.

But U.S. Judge Beryl Howell refused to lift Johnston’s probation.

Johnston still has about 17 months to go in his 36-month probation, Howell wrote in an April 30 order denying Johnston’s request.

And Johnston’s criminal conduct was very serious, the judge wrote.

Johnston joined “the riot at the Capitol building knowing that the police had been overrun and overwhelmed by the rioters” and then entered the Capitol Building through a broken window, despite acknowledging that, by entering, he would be inviting further violence, Howell wrote.

Johnston also “brazenly and repeatedly” disregarded police directions and remained in the Capitol despite seeing “property damage and physical altercations between rioters and the police on at least four separate occasions,” she wrote.

Johnston, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, was arrested by the FBI in Charleston in May 2022 for his Capitol breach offenses. The S.C. Supreme Court suspended his law license shortly afterward. Lawyers cannot engage in conduct that brings disgrace upon the law.

When Johnston was arrested, he released a statement through his then-lawyer that said, “I intend to plead not guilty to these charges and look forward to my day in court.”

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