WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeffrey Clark, the former Justice Department official who aided President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, should be stripped of his law license, a Washington disciplinary panel ruled on Thursday.
Clark, who is now overseeing a federal regulatory office, played a key role in Trump’s efforts to challenge his election loss to Joe Biden and clashed with Justice Department superiors who refused to back his false claims of fraud.
The D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility’s recommendation will now go to the D.C. Court of Appeals for a final decision.
Under the second Trump administration, Clark has been serving as acting head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a part of the Office of Management and Budget that is responsible for reviewing executive branch regulations.
OMB spokesperson Rachel Cauley said in a post on X that “this latest injustice is just another chapter in the Deep State’s ongoing assault on President Trump and those who stood beside him in defense of the truth.”
“JEFF CLARK has been harassed, raided, doxed, and blacklisted simply for questioning a RIGGED election and serving President Trump,” she wrote.
At issue in the D.C. bar proceedings was a letter that Clark, as an assistant attorney general in the first Trump administration, drafted that said the Justice Department was investigating “various irregularities” and had identified “significant concerns” that may have impacted the election in Georgia and other states. Clark wanted the letter sent to Georgia lawmakers, but Justice Department superiors refused.
The board said disciplinary counsel proved that Clark made “intentionally false statements” when he continued to push for the Justice Department to issue the letter after being told by superiors that it contained falsehoods.
“Lawyers cannot advocate for any outcome based on false statements and they certainly cannot urge others to do so,” the board’s report said. “Respondent persistently and energetically sought to do just that on an important national issue. He should be disbarred as a consequence and to send a message to the rest of the Bar and to the public that this behavior will not be tolerated.”
Clark’s attorney, Harry MacDougald, argued during disciplinary hearings last year that the letter was part of the debate that normally occurs between lawyers and that punishing Clark in those circumstances would have a “chilling effect.”
“They want disbar Jeff Clark for the heresy of privately recommending further investigations of the 2020 election,” MacDougald said in an email Thursday. “This is a pure thought crime and a travesty of justice.”
Clark’s conflict with Justice Department superiors culminated in a contentious, hourslong meeting at the White House on Jan. 3, 2021, in which Trump openly considered installing Clark as acting attorney general, according to a Senate Judiciary report. Several officials in the Jan. 3 meeting told Trump they would resign if he put Clark in charge at the Justice Department.
Another close Trump ally, Rudy Giuliani, was disbarred in Washington last year, months after he lost his law license in New York for pursuing false claims Trump made about his 2020 election loss.