{"id":121,"date":"2026-05-14T04:08:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=121"},"modified":"2026-05-14T04:08:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:08:05","slug":"doj-sues-d-c-bar-escalating-fight-over-discipline-for-trump-administration-attorneys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"DOJ sues D.C. Bar, escalating fight over discipline for Trump administration attorneys"},"content":{"rendered":"

The suit is part of an effort by the Trump administration to push back on ethics investigations into federal government lawyers.<\/strong><\/p>

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\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in 2017. (Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Trump administration is suing the D.C. Bar Association over its recommendation to disbar Jeffrey Clark<\/a>, a former Justice Department official who was found to have violated legal ethics in his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in D.C. on Wednesday evening, accuses the D.C. Bar of unlawfully punishing federal government attorneys, impinging on the powers of the executive branch.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is the latest example of the Trump administration asserting its authority to try to redeem Trump allies and supporters who were charged or accused of wrongdoing for their actions around attempts to thwart the 2020 election results.<\/p>\n

It also marks an escalation in the administration\u2019s battle with state bar associations, which are regulatory groups for the legal profession that ensure practicing attorneys meet educational requirements and ethical standards.<\/p>\n

Trump and his allies have denounced state and local bar associations as politically motivated, pushing back on scrutiny the bodies have directed at Trump administration attorneys as they pursue unusual cases and investigatory paths to carry out the president\u2019s political goals.<\/p>\n

During Trump\u2019s second term, the Justice Department has blocked its attorneys from participating in some high-profile events put on by local bar associations \u2014 a sharp departure from long-standing department norms. And in March, the Justice Department proposed new regulations that would allow the attorney general to suspend state and local bar investigations into the department\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs our complaint and history make clear, the DC Bar has long acted as a blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes. No more,\u201d acting attorney general Todd Blanche said in a statement on Wednesday\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Hamilton P. Fox, the D.C. Bar\u2019s disciplinary counsel, who is named as a defendant in the suit, declined to comment. Others involved in attorney disciplinary proceedings and also listed as defendants, including the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility and Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, did not immediately return requests for comment Wednesday. <\/b><\/p>\n

Clark was a former senior Justice Department appointee during the first Trump administration. The D.C. Bar found that Clark violated ethics rules when he drafted a letter for the Justice Department to send to Georgia officials, demanding that the state legislature call a special session to examine votes in the presidential election. Trump has long promoted baseless claims that his loss to Joe Biden was due to election fraud.<\/p>\n

Multiple former Justice Department officials testified at Clark\u2019s disciplinary hearing that he went against department findings that there was no significant fraud in the election when he drafted the letter.<\/p>\n

Clark\u2019s attorney\u2019s argued that he should not be punished because he never sent the letter \u2014 and that he should be protected from discipline because of attorney-client privilege.<\/p>\n

But the D.C. Bar\u2019s Board of Professional Responsibility recommended that Clark be disbarred for his actions.<\/p>

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That recommendation then goes to the D.C. Court of Appeals to make a final determination. The appeals court has not yet ruled on the matter and Clark\u2019s law license is suspending pending that ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe D.C. Court of Appeals\u2019 disciplinary authorities are punishing a former Department of Justice official for preparing a deliberative and pre-decisional draft letter that was never issued,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cWeaponizing state bar discipline against Executive Branch attorneys in this way chills them from giving candid legal advice to others in the Executive Branch, including the President and Attorney General. To permit these proceedings is to allow state bar authorities to control the Executive Branch. That is not the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was signed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, the third most powerful person in the department who oversees the civil division.<\/p>\n

It asks for a judge to order the D.C. Bar findings against Clark void and to prevent any future investigations into Clark around his work as a government attorney. In a post on social media, Clark thanked the Justice Department and called the lawsuit \u201can important step to vindicate the separation of powers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several other attorneys in Trump\u2019s orbit have faced disciplinary proceedings from state and local bar associations in recent years.<\/p>\n

Actions by the bar associations in D.C. and New York led to the permanent disbarment of Rudy Giuliani<\/a>, who represented the president during in his legal fight to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in those jurisdictions.<\/p>\n

Attorney disciplinary panels found he pressed baseless legal claims unsupported by facts.<\/p>\n

The California Supreme Court stripped John Eastman, another attorney involved in those efforts, of his law license earlier this year after a lengthy battle initiated by that state\u2019s bar.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the D.C. Bar\u2019s Office of Disciplinary Counsel also opened proceedings against Ed Martin, the Justice Department\u2019s\u2019 current pardon attorney. Martin has petitioned to remove the disciplinary proceedings to federal court, raising arguments about political bias similar to those made in Wednesday\u2019s suit.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit filed Wednesday devoted a section to Martin\u2019s case, arguing that it highlights that the D.C. Bar is targeting conservative prosecutors.<\/p>\n

The proceedings against Martin center on his unusual communications with then-Georgetown law school dean William M. Treanor<\/a>. In a letter to Treanor, Martin questioned whether Georgetown was using Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices and, if so, demanded the school change its curriculum. The complaint alleges that Martin was vague over what DEI practices he was referring to and told Treanor that he would punish the school by not hiring its students and graduates \u2014 even before the dean had an opportunity to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendants are unlawfully attempting to regulate the Federal Government by leveraging the disciplinary process against Federal Government attorneys vis-\u00e0-vis other Federal Government attorneys differentially based on factors other than the disinterested administration of justice, like viewpoint and political affiliation,\u201d the lawsuit states.<\/p>

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The suit is part of an effort by the Trump administration to push back on ethics investigations into federal government lawyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nDOJ sues D.C. Bar, escalating fight over discipline for Trump administration attorneys - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=121\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DOJ sues D.C. 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