The Trump administration is taking the District of Columbia’s (D.C.) attorney discipline system to court, arguing it has gone after government lawyers for doing their jobs.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that it had filed a complaint against D.C. Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton P. Fox III, the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility. The complaint went to a federal court in Washington, D.C., and the department filed it Wednesday evening, according to United Press International (UPI).
The department contends that the city’s disciplinary system enforces its rules unevenly. It allegedly singles out current and former federal attorneys, specifically ones who served Republican administrations, the Washington Examiner reported. The DOJ argued that the department is trampling constitutional protections for executive branch independence, the outlet noted. (RELATED: Bondi DOJ Tries Curbing One Of The Left’s Favorite Legal Weapons)
The case centers on Jeff Clark, a former assistant attorney general, and the department wants his disbarment thrown out. The disciplinary case against Clark grew out of confidential executive branch talks about possible fraud in the 2020 election. The dispute is still in litigation nearly six years later, according to the Justice Department.
Justice Department Files Complaint Against D.C. Bar Disciplinary Authorities Over Their Weaponization of the Bar Disciplinary Process Against Federal Government Attorneys
The filing advances President Trump’s Executive Order Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government and… pic.twitter.com/dXxS5gQXCn
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) May 13, 2026
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche did not mince words about the office his department is suing. “As our complaint and history make clear, the DC Bar has long acted as a blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes. No more,” he said in a statement released by the Justice Department.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, who personally filed the complaint, said the suit aims to wall off internal government deliberations from outside review. “The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive Executive Branch deliberations and target Executive Branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and Federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues,” he said in the department’s statement.
Clark’s appeal has drawn support from three former U.S. attorneys general. William Barr, Jeff Sessions and Michael Mukasey backed him.
The complaint also points to the case of Ed Martin, a former interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia who now serves as pardon attorney. Martin drew ethics charges in 2026 over a letter he sent to Georgetown University Law Center regarding the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, the Washington Examiner reported.
Clark and Martin are not the only administration figures who have drawn ethics challenges. The left-leaning group Campaign for Accountability filed a complaint against former District of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba in 2025, and a coalition of groups and law professors pushed the Florida bar to investigate former Attorney General Pam Bondi that same year.
The lawsuit follows an earlier attempt to shield department lawyers. In March, the Justice Department proposed a rule that would let it examine ethics allegations against its attorneys before any state bar acts, asking those bars to hold off on their own inquiries until that review wraps up. Blanche had signaled the change months earlier at the Federalist Society’s convention in November.
The Daily Caller reached out to the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel for comment but has not heard back as of publication.
Editor’s note: The headlines were updated.
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