Attorney Stephen L. Snyder, the highly successful plaintiffs lawyer convicted last month of federal extortion charges, is asking to be acquitted or for a new trial, arguing among other things that he was not competent to represent himself.

Snyder, 77, was convicted of trying to extort the University of Maryland Medical System for $25 million. During the trial, he spent a night in jail after he was held in contempt for repeatedly violating the judge’s orders.

Now he’s asking that an attorney represent him. That attorney, Gerald Ruter, filed a motion Friday that details Snyder’s diminished state during their interactions.

“Respectfully, the actions that took place in front of the jury, like a bad movie, were of the nature and duration that any person’s sensibilities would be shaken,” Ruter wrote. “It is believed and therefore averred that these actions were not volitional; rather, they resulted from mental disease or disorder that needs to be evaluated.”

A federal jury convicted Snyder of attempted extortion for threatening to bring down the University of Maryland Medical System’s organ transplant program if he wasn’t paid $25 million. The allegations against Snyder date to 2018, when Snyder took on two clients who suffered severe complications following organ transplants, and eventually died. Snyder produced television commercials accusing UMMS of putting “profits over safety,” and said he would air them as part of a press blitz that would destroy the hospital.

Snyder told jurors he had been aggressive — his calling card throughout his career — but insisted that he had no criminal intent and was entrapped by the government. He repeatedly invoked his reputation and success earlier in this career, including his tagline: “Don’t sue them, Snyder them.”

But Snyder, who said repeatedly during proceedings that he was in poor health, clearly struggled to present his case and was often unprepared. He ran afoul of U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, who held him in contempt at the conclusion of closing arguments and ordered him to spend a night in jail.

Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 25.

Ruter was Snyder’s standby counsel during the proceedings. He said he first met Snyder in May, and that they had a nearly five-hour-long meeting that was “disjoined and totally unhelpful to my understanding of what he had done or what he wanted to do or what he wished for me to do to assist him.”

Ruter’s notes of a July meeting observed Snyder was “disorganized, thoughts muddled.”

“I took extensive notes on the issues presented and attempted to discuss them with Mr. Snyder at our meetings prior to the motions hearing,” Ruter said. “It was clear that Mr. Snyder did not comprehend my attempt to discuss the issues presented and he admitted he had never read the submissions.”

During a motions hearing, Snyder went missing and was found in a bathroom, bloodied from a fall. Snyder also outlined a litany of medical and mental concerns.

“The court asked Mr. Snyder if he was competent, and he said he was,” Ruter said.

With trial nearing, Snyder only had interest in discussing his opening statement, Ruter said, and “much of what was proposed was inappropriate and he was so advised.”

Ruter said that during trial “it was clear” that Snyder was unable to properly question witnesses, shouted at them or treated them in a disrespectful manner, and was “unable to accept and act upon the Court’s admonitions.”

“These actions, most of which were witnessed by the Court personally, should have resulted in Mr. Snyder’s removal as his own counsel, a right that is not absolute when abused,” Ruter said.

Snyder was initially represented by defense attorney Arnold M. Weiner, his former law partner, but he withdrew from the case in late 2023.