What they're not telling you: # DOJ Sues DC Bar Over Its Prosecution Of Former Trump Lawyer, Calls It "Partisan Arm Of Leftist Causes" The federal government can use constitutional preemption doctrine to shield executive branch officials from state bar discipline—a legal theory that, if successful, would insulate government lawyers from professional accountability when carrying out presidential directives, regardless of their content. On May 13, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the D.C. Bar, its disciplinary counsel Hamilton P.
# THE TAKE The DOJ's complaint reads like institutional scorekeeping dressed as principle. Let's be precise: they're alleging the DC Bar weaponized disciplinary proceedings against Trump counsel—a testable claim requiring actual evidence, not rhetorical posturing. Here's what matters: Bar associations *do* operate with structural bias toward establishment legal consensus. That's documented. But framing this as "leftist" rather than *institutional conservatism protecting institutional interests* misses the mechanism. The real play? Both sides now treat professional licensing as political terrain. The DOJ filing legitimizes what it claims to oppose: instrumentalizing regulatory bodies. They're not defending against politicization—they're competing for control of it. Watch for discovery. If the Bar selectively enforced standards, documents will show it. If the DOJ's intervention itself becomes the precedent for future partisan intervention, that's your actual story. This isn't about justice. It's about whose turn it is to weaponize the apparatus.
What the Documents Show
Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the D.C. Court of Appeals, and the District of Columbia itself, alleging they acted as a "partisan arm of leftist causes" in prosecuting former Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark. The suit centers on Clark's drafting of an internal letter—which was never issued—outlining potential fraud concerns regarding the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. According to the DOJ complaint, Clark was disciplined not for professional misconduct, but for the content of his predecisional, deliberative work product examining election irregularities that remain the subject of ongoing criminal investigation and civil litigation. The complaint argues that allowing state bar authorities to proceed against Clark would grant them unconstitutional control over the executive branch's internal decision-making processes.
Follow the Money
The DOJ invokes the supremacy clause, asserting that federal preemption prevents state bar bodies from regulating the discretionary duties of federal officials performing their duties within the executive branch. This framing treats Clark's disciplinary case as a constitutional separation-of-powers violation rather than a straightforward ethics matter. The mainstream framing of Clark's prosecution emphasizes his role in efforts to overturn election results; the DOJ's counter-narrative treats it as federal authorities defending executive branch autonomy from state intrusion. Bar did not immediately respond to requests for comment, referring inquiries to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility. This silence—contrasting sharply with the DOJ's aggressive federal lawsuit—suggests the bar may lack resources or inclination to litigate a constitutional preemption claim against the federal government.
What Else We Know
The case reveals an asymmetry in enforcement power: while state bars can theoretically discipline any lawyer, a federal agency asserting constitutional supremacy operates from a position of structural advantage. The broader implication cuts deeper than one lawyer's career. If preemption doctrine shields executive branch attorneys from state bar discipline, it creates a protected class of federal lawyers whose professional conduct falls beyond the reach of traditional accountability mechanisms. State bars have historically served as the primary check on lawyer misconduct through disbarment and discipline. A successful DOJ argument would mean that when federal lawyers act on presidential directives—no matter how controversial—state bar authorities cannot sanction them if those actions fall within their "discretionary Executive Branch duties." This inverts the usual relationship between federal and state power in professional licensing, treating executive branch service as conferring immunity from the ethics codes that bind all other lawyers. For ordinary citizens, the stakes involve the reliability of institutional checks on government power.
Primary Sources
- Source: ZeroHedge
- Category: Surveillance State
- Cross-reference independently — don't take our word for it.
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