{"id":1673786,"date":"2022-10-05T11:08:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1673786"},"modified":"2022-10-05T11:08:38","modified_gmt":"2022-10-05T15:08:38","slug":"dc-bar-assails-trump-doj-lawyer-for-dishonesty-to-mask-democrats-2020-election-lies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dc-bar-assails-trump-doj-lawyer-for-dishonesty-to-mask-democrats-2020-election-lies\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Bar Assails Trump DOJ Lawyer For \u2018Dishonesty\u2019 To Mask Democrats\u2019 2020 Election Lies"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdc-bar-assails-trump-doj-lawyer-for-dishonesty-to-mask-democrats-2020-election-lies%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1673786&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>The leftists running the D.C. Bar launch their \u201cOctober surprise\u201d on Thursday with a preliminary hearing focused on charges brought against former Trump administration Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark. Given that the ethics charge lodged against Clark is demonstrably false and premised on the fraudulent narratives pushed by the partisan politicians running the Jan. 6 show trial and their partners in the press, it is every member of the D.C. Bar\u2019s Board of Professional Responsibility \u2014 and not Clark \u2014 who should be investigated for \u201cengaging in conduct involving dishonesty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The D.C. Bar <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/30\/dc-bar-does-democrats-dirty-work-by-tarring-opponents-right-before-midterms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched<\/a> an investigation into Clark earlier this year, purportedly after receiving a complaint from Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A formal complaint from the Board of Professional Responsibility charged that Clard had violated the Rules of Professional Responsibility by drafting a Dec. 28, 2020, letter addressed to the Georgia governor, the Georgia speaker of the House, and the Georgia president pro tempore of the Senate concerning the 2020 election. In addition to a signatory line for himself, the draft letter included signature lines for his superiors, Jeff Rosen, the then-acting attorney general, and Richard Donoghue, the then-deputy attorney general.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Clark\u2019s proposed letter stated that the DOJ was \u201cinvestigating various irregularities in the 2020 election for President of the United States\u201d and noted that \u201cwe have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn light of these developments,\u201d Clark\u2019s proposed letter continued, \u201cthe Department recommends that the Georgia General Assembly should convene in special session so that its legislators are in a position to take additional testimony, receive new evidence, and deliberate on the matter consistent with its duties under the U.S. Constitution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The draft letter further stated that \u201cthe Department also finds troubling the current posture of a pending lawsuit in Fulton County, Georgia, raising several of the voting irregularities pertaining to which candidate for President of the United States Received the most lawfully cast votes in Georgia,\u201d noting that \u201cthe trial court there has not even scheduled a hearing on the matter, making it difficult for the judicial process to consider this evidence and resolve these matters on appeal prior to January 6.\u201d The proposed letter then stressed that \u201cthe urgency of this serious matter, including the Fulton County litigation\u2019s sluggish pace,\u201d makes the calling of a special session of the Georgia General Assembly warranted and in the nation\u2019s best interests.<\/p>\n<p>Rosen and Donoghue both disagreed with Clark\u2019s assessment of the situation, with Donoghue stating, according to the D.C. Bar complaint, that he knew \u201cof nothing that would support the statement, \u2018we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states.\u2019\u201d Donoghue further noted he did not believe it was the DOJ\u2019s role to recommend to a \u201cState legislature about how they should meet their Constitutional obligations to appoint Electors.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The D.C. Bar\u2019s complaint further alleged that with Rosen and Donoghue refusing to sign the letter, Trump offered Clark the position of acting attorney general and Clark purportedly intended to accept the position and then send the letter to Georgia himself. Ultimately, Trump decided against replacing Rosen and Donoghue and never sent the draft letter to the Georgia officials. <\/p>\n<p>Yet the D.C. Bar charged that Clark\u2019s mere drafting of the letter and advocating for it to be sent to Georgia involved \u201cdishonesty\u201d and \u201cseriously interfere[d] in the administration of justice\u201d in violation of the Bar\u2019s Code of Professional Conduct.<\/p>\n<h2>The Real \u2018Dishonsty\u2019 Rests with the D.C. Bar<\/h2>\n<p>It was not Clark\u2019s letter, however, that was \u201cdishonest\u201d or sought to interfere in the \u201cadministration of justice,\u201d but rather the \u201cSpecification of Charges\u201d the D.C. Bar leveled against Clark. In short, in the draft letter, Clark spoke of \u201cvoting irregularities\u201d that \u201cmay have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple states,\u201d and such irregularities, in fact, existed. For example, as The Federalist <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/07\/09\/new-evidence-indicates-enough-illegal-votes-in-georgia-to-tip-2020-results\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> last year, evidence suggests enough illegal votes were cast in Georgia to possibly tip the election results.<\/p>\n<p>Clark stressed that point in a response brief filed with the D.C. Bar, noting that the bar wrongly accepted \u201cthe dogmatic premise of Senator Durbin\u2019s complaint that there were no significant irregularities in the 2020 election.\u201d But as Clark then <a href=\"https:\/\/districtofcolumbiabar.sharepoint.com\/sites\/BPRCaseManager\/Shared%2520Documents\/Forms\/AllItems.aspx?ga=1&amp;id=%252Fsites%252FBPRCaseManager%252FShared%2520Documents%252FCases%2520of%2520Public%2520Interest%252FIn%2520re%2520Jeffrey%2520B%252E%2520Clark%252C%2520Board%2520Docket%2520No%252E%252022%252DBD%252D039%252F2022%252D08%252D11%2520Sealed%2520Response%2520to%2520the%2520Board%2527s%2520August%25208th%2520Sealing%2520Order%2520Including%2520a%2520Call%2520for%2520Affirmative%2520Relief%252Epdf&amp;viewid=5ee3a11b%252Dd3d1%252D4c4d%252D86cf%252D695ef1f9747b&amp;parent=%252Fsites%252FBPRCaseManager%252FShared%2520Documents%252FCases%2520of%2520Public%2520Interest%252FIn%2520re%2520Jeffrey%2520B%252E%2520Clark%252C%2520Board%2520Docket%2520No%252E%252022%252DBD%252D039\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">detailed<\/a>, subsequent judicial decisions and investigations in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Michigan vindicated his view.<\/p>\n<p>What did not exist, and what Clark\u2019s letter never claimed existed, was evidence of \u201cfraud\u201d that \u201cmay have impacted the outcome of the election.\u201d Yet in the Bar\u2019s Specification of Charges, the Board of Professional Conduct equated \u201cfraud\u201d with \u201cvoting irregularities\u201d and then falsely asserted that \u201con December 1, 2020, and again on December 21, 2020, Mr. Barr publicly announced that there was no evidence of election fraud or irregularities that would have altered the result of the 2020 presidential election.\u201d However, contrary to the D.C. Bar\u2019s factual representation, then-Attorney General William Barr did not discuss election irregularities, instead focusing solely on the question of \u201celection fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, on Dec. 1, 2020, during an <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/barr-no-widespread-election-fraud-b1f1488796c9a98c4b1a9061a6c7f49d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">interview<\/a> with the Associated Press, Barr said that while the FBI and U.S. attorneys had been checking up on tips and complaints, \u201cto date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven\u2019t seen anything to substantiate that,\u201d Barr said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, on Dec. 21, 2020, during a press conference, Barr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rev.com\/blog\/transcripts\/bill-barr-press-conference-transcript-no-special-counsels-needed-to-investigate-election-or-hunter-biden\">spoke<\/a> only of fraud and not \u201cvoting irregularities.\u201d \u201cAs you said, I\u2019ve already commented on fraud,\u201d Barr began in response to a question about whether sufficient evidence justified the appointment of a special counsel to investigate election fraud. \u201cLet me just say,\u201d Barr continued, \u201cthere are fraud, unfortunately, in most elections. I think we\u2019re too tolerant of it, and I\u2019m sure there was fraud in this election, but I was commenting on the extent to which we had looked at suggestions or allegations of systemic or broad-based fraud that would affect the outcome of the election. And I already spoke to that, and I stand by that statement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The former attorney general\u2019s statements, focused as they were on election fraud, thus prove entirely irrelevant to the content of Clark\u2019s letter that spotlighted instead election irregularities. And that the D.C. Bar in its charge against Clark misrepresented Barr\u2019s public comments is the board\u2019s first brush with \u201cdishonesty.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>But Wait, There\u2019s More<\/h2>\n<p>The Board of Professional Responsibility\u2019s dishonesty continues when it claims that Clark\u2019s statement \u201cthat the Department of Justice had \u2018identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiples States, including the State of Georgia\u2019\u201d \u201cwas false,\u201d because \u201cthe Department was aware of no allegations of election fraud in Georgia that would have affected the results of the presidential election.\u201d Again, Clark never said \u201celection fraud\u201d would have affected the results of the election. In fact, in his draft letter, Clark highlighted not allegations of election fraud but the pending litigation in Fulton County that involved claims of violations of state election law.<\/p>\n<p>Further, while the D.C. Bar framed Barr\u2019s statements as proving Clark\u2019s dishonesty, Barr\u2019s comments actually highlighted the distinction between fraud and election irregularities, which the D.C. Bar conflates. Specifically, after noting that the DOJ had investigated claims of \u201csystemic fraud,\u201d such as \u201cthe claim that [voting] machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results,\u201d and found such accusations without support, Barr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/barr-says-justice-department-found-no-evidence-of-fraud-that-would-change-election-outcome\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">explained<\/a> that some \u201cpeople were confusing the use of the federal criminal justice system with allegations that should be made in civil lawsuits.\u201d The remedy for such complaints rested with state or local officials and not the DOJ, Barr stressed. By Barr\u2019s own words, then, there was a distinction between claims of election fraud and other allegations of election irregularity.<\/p>\n<p>After Barr\u2019s departure, Clark advocated for the DOJ to take a more proactive approach to the concerns of voting irregularity by, for instance, informing the Georgia Legislature of the concerns and advising the state to address them. His bosses disagreed with Clark\u2019s assessment, but contrary to the D.C. Bar\u2019s claims, that does not make Clark\u2019s position \u201cdishonest.\u201d On the contrary, it is the D.C. Bar\u2019s complaint that is dishonest by claiming that the views of any one individual in the DOJ represented \u201cthe Department\u2019s\u201d position.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Yet, throughout its charge against Clark, the D.C. Bar alleges that statements Clark wrote in the draft letter were \u201cfalse\u201d because \u201cthe Department\u201d did not hold the position Clark pushed. For instance, the D.C. Bar alleged that Clark\u2019s assertion in the draft letter that \u201cthe sluggish pace\u201d of the Fulton County litigation \u201cmakes the calling of a special session of the Georgia General Assembly warranted,\u201d was false because \u201cthe Department\u201d \u201cwas not concerned by\u201d the \u201dlack of progress\u201d with the pending Fulton County lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>However, as Clark stressed in his response to the D.C. Bar\u2019s charge, \u201cit is especially wrong as a legal matter to conflate the views of the Department of Justice with the views of Rosen and Donoghue.\u201d In other words, the DOJ\u2019s position only became \u201cthe Department\u2019s position,\u201d after Clark advocated for his course of action; Rosen, Donoghue, and others argued against it; and Trump, as <em>the <\/em>executive, adopted the dissenter\u2019s view and opted against having the DOJ send the letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While non-lawyers may not naturally differentiate between \u201cthe Department\u201d and the individuals leading \u201cthe Department,\u201d the D.C. Bar is comprised of attorneys who fully understand the importance of that distinction, making their charge against Clark for \u201cdishonesty\u201d in drafting the letter dishonest. <\/p>\n<p>So when the D.C. Bar previews its case against Clark on Thursday during the preliminary hearing, remember it is the Board of Professional Responsibility lawyers, not Clark, who deserve sanction \u2014 and especially so for trying to spin <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/30\/dc-bar-does-democrats-dirty-work-by-tarring-opponents-right-before-midterms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an October surprise<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The leftists running the D.C. Bar launch their \u201cOctober surprise\u201d on Thursday with a preliminary hearing focused on charges brought against former Trump administration Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark. Given<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1673786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1673786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1673786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1673786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1673786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1673786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}