Saturday Rewind: Lowering the Bar
Trump DOJ sues the D.C. Bar to protect Jeff Clark. Also: Ex-U.S. Attorney John Sarcone found to have engaged in "professional misconduct."
The Trump Justice Department has been ratcheting up its effort to stop bar associations from investigating its attorneys, filing a federal lawsuit against the D.C. Bar in order to protect Jeffrey Clark.
After the 2020 presidential election, Clark was the only Justice Department lawyer willing to participate in Trump’s attempt to subvert Joe Biden’s victory.
In a draft letter, Clark lied that officials had been “investigating various irregularities” with the election that he falsely claimed “may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States.” The Justice Department found no such evidence and senior officials prevented Clark from sending the letter to Georgia authorities. For his role in Trump’s election subversion plot, Clark was indicted and identified as an unidentified co-conspirator in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.
Years after Clark’s investigation, the D.C. Bar recommended his disbarment, a finding that the current Justice Department hopes to void through litigation.
Legal expert Lisa Graves, the co-founder of Court Accountability Action, called that development “outrageous.”
“In my personal view, Jeffrey Clark should certainly have been disbarred, but regardless of that case — or any other case — it’s inappropriate for the U.S. Department of Justice to try to impede the independence of bar associations policing the rules for attorneys who are licensed by that bar,” Graves said, denouncing the “extraordinary intervention.”
The self-interest of the Trump Justice Department’s maneuver is obvious.
The D.C. Bar is investigating former “Stop the Steal” lawyer Ed Martin, who briefly served as an interim U.S. Attorney before being shuffled into the role of pardon lawyer because he failed to receive enough support for Senate confirmation. Martin’s investigation centers on his attempt to threaten Georgetown University Law School through an unwarranted investigation into its purported “diversity, equity and inclusion” practices, in violation of its First Amendment rights.
Earlier this week, New York’s Attorney Grievance Committee found sufficient evidence to conclude that Trump’s former campaign lawyer turned disqualified Acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone engaged in professional misconduct. Watchdog groups have filed bar complaints against other high-ranking Trump Justice Department officials, and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has tried to preempt those actions by divesting bar associations of jurisdiction through a proposed rule in the Federal Register.
“What this litigation is designed to do is to protect them — not just from criminal indictment, which is in some ways at risk because of Trump’s pardon power — but from the consequences of not being able to practice law ever again,” Graves noted.
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