{"id":2317634,"date":"2024-08-01T15:28:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T19:28:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-c-bar-recommends-punishing-trump-doj-lawyer-jeff-clark\/"},"modified":"2024-08-01T15:37:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T19:37:03","slug":"d-c-bar-recommends-punishing-trump-doj-lawyer-jeff-clark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/d-c-bar-recommends-punishing-trump-doj-lawyer-jeff-clark\/","title":{"rendered":"D.C. Bar Recommends Punishing Trump DOJ Lawyer Jeff Clark"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/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%2Fd-c-bar-recommends-punishing-trump-doj-lawyer-jeff-clark%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=2317634&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--><p>The Washington, DC bar \u2064has recommended a two-year suspension for Jeffrey Clark, \u200da former\u2064 Department of Justice official \u200cunder the Trump \u2062administration,\u200c due to charges of &#8220;extraordinary recklessness.&#8221;\u2063 A committee \u200daccused \u200bClark of attempting to interfere with the justice system by drafting an unsubmitted letter that raised concerns about the 2020 election, which he later faced charges for in July 2022. Although the\u200d committee acknowledged his qualifications and sincere intentions during his \u2064tenure, it \u200bdeemed his actions \u2064warrant punishment. Clark&#8217;s legal \u2064team criticized the bar&#8217;s decision as politically motivated and \u200blacking legal grounding, \u200dasserting that\u200d it infringes on\u2062 presidential immunity. They \u200dplan to\u200d pursue appeals to contest this recommendation.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Washington, DC bar advanced its lawfare on Trump-era Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark Thursday when one of its committees recommended the attorney be suspended from practicing law for at least two years. The committee also demanded that the D.C. bar keep Clark out of work until he can &ldquo;show fitness for readmission is an appropriate sanction for what was charged and proven.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/755303207\/D-C-COURT-OF-APPEALS-BOARD-ON-PROFESSIONAL-RESPONSIBILITY-Jeff-Clark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">213-page report<\/a>, Chair Merril Hirsh, Public Member Patricia Mathews, and Attorney Member Rebecca C. Smith accuse Clark of &ldquo;truly extraordinary recklessness&rdquo; over claims he violated bar rules by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/10\/02\/obama-judge-rejects-removal-of-fulton-county-case-to-federal-court-where-jeff-clark-could-get-a-fair-trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drafting<\/a>&nbsp;a letter to Peach State officials noting the DOJ &ldquo;identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the [2020] election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Clark never sent the letter, but the legal licensing association charged him&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22111902-jeffrey-clark-specification-of-charges-from-dc-bar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">in July 2022<\/a>&nbsp;anyway with &ldquo;attempted dishonesty&rdquo; and &ldquo;attempted serious interference with the administration of justice&rdquo; for considering recommending an investigation of inconsistencies in the 2020 election. He was also named as one of the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/11\/01\/jeffrey-clarks-lawyers-demand-fani-willis-grotesque-abuse-of-prosecutorial-power-be-dismissed-over-lack-of-personal-jurisdiction\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">19 &ldquo;co-conspirator&rdquo; targets<\/a>&nbsp;in Democrats&rsquo; wide-ranging election indictment in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility&rsquo;s hearing committee acknowledged that Clark was &ldquo;in a unique position to act&rdquo; in the aftermath of the 2020 election and &ldquo;believed it was his duty to do so,&rdquo; but said he deserves punishment for his legal and protected work history anyway.<\/p>\n<p>The committee conceded Clark is a &ldquo;highly-credentialed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/and-just-like-that-cast-responds-to-meghan-mccain-calling-sex-and-the-city-reboot-too-woke\/\" title=\"\u2018And Just Like That\u2019 Cast Responds To Meghan McCain Calling \u2018Sex And The City\u2019 Reboot Too Woke\">hard-working lawyer<\/a> who represents clients tenaciously&rdquo; who acted sincerely during his tenure at the DOJ. Yet the same D.C. bar that reinstated convicted FBI Russiagate forger Kevin Clinesmith <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/12\/17\/dc-bar-restores-convicted-fbi-russiagate-forger-while-hes-still-serving-probation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">while he was still on probation<\/a> and has yet to act on a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/31\/america-first-legal-files-misconduct-complaint-against-hunter-biden-with-d-c-bar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">misconduct complaint<\/a> against First Son Hunter Biden now wants to strip Clark of his place in the legal world until he &ldquo;recognizes the seriousness of his conduct&rdquo; and has &ldquo;taken any step to remedy past wrongs or to prevent future ones.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It is admirable, not wrong, to believe in a cause; but it is wrong and dangerous to the public and our legal system to let that belief operate to the exclusion of judgment,&rdquo; the committee wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Clark&rsquo;s legal counsel Charlie Burnham, Harry Macdougald, and Bob Destro told The Federalist in a statement that the committee&rsquo;s report, which they dubbed &ldquo;unlawful,&rdquo; has &ldquo;no legal effect&rdquo; on Clark right now. That opens the door for them to &ldquo;pursue multiple appeals to keep it that way.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mr. Clark should have been declared immune from the political weaponization of the Bar launched against him and we have confidence that Mr. Clark will be fully vindicated,&rdquo; the lawyers said.<\/p>\n<p>The recommendation, they added, &ldquo;wrongly dives into confidential deliberations shielded by both presidential immunity and executive privilege&mdash;matters the Committee&rsquo;s three volunteers have no power to shred.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In fact, the recommendation is an outrageous power grab that began as a partisan political complaint by Senator Dick Durbin. This case never should have been brought; it violates the separation of powers. But it certainly should have been dismissed in light of the&nbsp;<em>Trump v. United States&nbsp;<\/em>decision issued on July 1, 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court there barred any actor from seeing or reviewing purported facts involving Mr. Clark&rsquo;s 2020 legal advice. The Hearing Committee ignored its limitations and has now intruded into core presidential duties,&rdquo; the lawyers continued.<\/p>\n<p>Clark spent the last two years fighting an uphill battle against the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/689529426\/Clark-Defense-Letter-To-ODNI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&ldquo;legally and factually ridiculous&rdquo;<\/a> targeting scheme. In December, he tried to obtain public documents about election integrity key to his bar defense but was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/04\/biden-admin-withholds-election-integrity-documents-key-to-jeff-clarks-dc-bar-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stonewalled<\/a> by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the DOJ.<\/p>\n<p>In February, the D.C. Court of Appeals <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/02\/26\/in-big-victory-against-lawfare-dc-court-of-appeals-smacks-down-jeff-clark-subpoena\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ruled<\/a> that Clark did not have to comply with a subpoena from the D.C. bar&rsquo;s Office of Disciplinary Counsel because it would have violated his executive, law enforcement, deliberative process, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/masters-of-the-universe-here-are-the-nominees-for-special-master-in-trump-raid-investigation\/\" title=\"Masters of the universe: Here are the nominees for special master in Trump raid investigation\">attorney-client privileges<\/a>, as well as deprive him of his Fifth Amendment rights.<\/p>\n<p>The setbacks continued Thursday, when BPR Executive Attorney James T. Phalen <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/755305526\/James-T-Phalen-Cover-Letter-To-Jeff-Clark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">confirmed<\/a> in a letter to Clark that the D.C. bar wants to indefinitely deprive him of his ability to practice licensed law simply because he prioritized election integrity under former President Donald Trump. The D.C. bar is just one entity among many <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/02\/12\/state-bar-associations-let-rogue-leftist-prosecutors-skate-while-throwing-the-book-at-gop-lawyers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nationwide<\/a> that are working to punish dozens of lawyers for giving legal counsel to Trump and Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mr. Clark is an excellent lawyer who served his country honorably across two different presidential Administrations at the U.S. Justice Department, devoting six-and-a-half years of his life to public service,&rdquo; Clark&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/9-key-points-from-trump-campaign-press-conference-on-challenges-to-election-results\/\" title=\"9 Key Points from Trump Campaign Press Conference on Challenges to Election Results\">legal team<\/a> said. &ldquo;He had a duty to give his best expert advice to President Trump. But it is exactly such advice that Senator Durbin and other political opponents on the left seek to chill, so lawyers will never give candid advice to future Republican Presidents.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington, DC bar escalated its legal actions against Jeffrey Clark, a former Department of Justice official from the Trump administration, on Thursday. A committee recommended that he be suspended from practicing law for a minimum of two years and insisted that he remain barred from work until he can demonstrate his suitability for readmission. In their extensive 213-page report, committee members Merril Hirsh, Patricia Mathews, and Rebecca C. Smith accused Clark of &#8220;extraordinary recklessness&#8221; for allegedly breaching bar rules by drafting a letter to officials in Georgia claiming the DOJ had identified significant concerns that could have influenced the outcome of the 2020 election in several states. Although Clark never sent this letter, he was charged in July 2022 with &#8220;attempted dishonesty&#8221; and &#8220;attempted serious interference with the administration of justice&#8221; due to his consideration of recommending an investigation into election inconsistencies. He is also one of 19 individuals named as co-conspirators in a broad indictment related to election issues in Georgia.<\/p>\n<p>The hearing committee acknowledged that Clark was &#8220;in a unique position to act&#8221; following the 2020 election and believed it was his duty; however, they still deemed him deserving of punishment based on his legal history. They recognized him as a &#8220;highly-credentialed&#8221; lawyer who diligently represents clients but argued that he must acknowledge the seriousness of his actions before being allowed back into practice.<\/p>\n<p>Clark&#8217;s attorneys criticized the committee&#8217;s report as &#8220;unlawful,&#8221; asserting it has no current legal impact on him and indicating their intention to pursue multiple appeals against it. They argued that Clark should be protected from what they see as political misuse by the bar association and expressed confidence in his eventual vindication.<\/p>\n<p>They further claimed that this recommendation oversteps boundaries established by presidential immunity and executive privilege regarding confidential deliberations\u2014asserting it originated from partisan complaints led by Senator Dick Durbin\u2014and should have been dismissed based on recent Supreme Court rulings limiting access to information about Clark\u2019s legal advice during Trump&#8217;s presidency.<\/p>\n<p>Clark has faced challenges over two years while fighting what they describe as an unjust targeting scheme related to providing legal counsel during Trump&#8217;s administration. His team emphasized his dedication to public service across two administrations at DOJ while arguing against efforts perceived as attempts to intimidate lawyers advising Republican leaders moving forward<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2317635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Untitled-design.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[36910,36911,36913,36914,36912],"class_list":["post-2317634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-d-c-bar","tag-jeff-clark","tag-legal-ethics","tag-professional-conduct","tag-trump-doj"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Untitled-design.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317634","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\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2317635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}