D.C. Bar Moves to Penalize Jeffrey Clark, Who Aided Trump in Election Plot

WASHINGTON — A disciplinary board is transferring to penalize Jeffrey Clark, the previous Justice Division official who labored to undo the outcomes of the 2020 election, together with the potential for disbarment.

A criticism filed this week by the D.C. Bar’s Workplace of Disciplinary Counsel, which governs attorneys in Washington, accused Mr. Clark of interfering within the administration of justice in his bid to maintain President Donald J. Trump in energy.

The ethics criticism comes because the Justice Division’s watchdog and federal prosecutors are additionally scrutinizing Mr. Clark for his efforts to wield the division’s authority to falsely persuade election officers and the American public that Mr. Trump had received the presidential race.

Mr. Clark “tried to have interaction in conduct involving dishonesty” and “tried to have interaction in conduct that will significantly intervene with the administration of justice,” the criticism mentioned.

As soon as Mr. Clark receives the criticism, he has 20 days to answer the accusations, in line with a submitting by the D.C. Bar. Mr. Clark and his attorneys can current proof in his protection and cross-examine witnesses. Ought to he lose his case, the board may finally strip him of his legislation license.

Mr. Clark didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Rachel Semmel, a spokeswoman for the Middle for Renewing America, the place Mr. Clark is a senior fellow, referred to as Mr. Clark “an American hero” and mentioned that the ethics criticism was “the most recent assault on the authorized {qualifications} of one of many solely attorneys on the Division of Justice who had the pursuits of the American individuals at coronary heart.

The criticism was earlier reported by Regulation & Crime.

Mr. Clark largely flew below the radar on the Justice Division. In 2018, he was confirmed to run the environmental and pure assets division, and he took on the extra position of performing chief of the civil division after its chief resigned in the summertime of 2020.

However he drew nationwide consideration after The New York Occasions reported that he had been a part of an try to overthrow the Justice Division’s management so as to wield the company’s energy to maintain Mr. Trump in workplace.

The criticism focuses on that effort, which included John Eastman, a lawyer near Mr. Trump; Kenneth Klukowski, a White Home official who started working with Mr. Clark on the Justice Division after the election; and Consultant Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, who was certainly one of Mr. Trump’s high allies in Congress.

The criticism outlines the quite a few occasions that the performing lawyer basic, Jeffrey A. Rosen, and the performing deputy lawyer basic, Richard P. Donoghue, advised Mr. Clark that that they had discovered no proof to help allegations of widespread election fraud.

However, the criticism says that on Dec. 28, Mr. Clark requested Mr. Klukowski to analysis whether or not state legislatures may submit unauthorized slates of electors to Congress.

Mr. Clark reportedly used that analysis to draft a “proof-of-concept letter” to Georgia state election officers, falsely stating that fraud affected the state’s election outcomes. The letter urged the state legislature to convene a particular session and rethink the slate of electors that had forged their ballots for Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue refused Mr. Clark’s entreaties to signal and ship the letter. Inside every week, Mr. Clark knowledgeable them that the president deliberate to put in him as performing lawyer basic, a plan that high Justice Division officers and White Home attorneys finally derailed.

Final month, federal investigators carried out an early-morning search of Mr. Clark’s Virginia dwelling in reference to the inspector basic’s investigation into efforts by former Justice Division officers to overturn the 2020 election.

Federal prosecutors in Washington are additionally digging into the broader plan by Mr. Trump’s allies to have key swing states undergo Congress slates of electors falsely stating that Mr. Trump had received.