Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department attorney who was part of former President Donald Trump's challenge of the 2020 election should be barred from practicing law for two years, a Washington, D.C., disciplinary panel ruled Thursday.
While working at the Justice Department, Clark proposed persuading Republican-led legislatures to appoint pro-Trump electors in states President Joe Biden won in 2020. The panel ruled Clark's role violated his code of professional ethics as an attorney and threatened to destabilize the country.
"His recklessness risked disabling the Justice Department, throwing the Presidential election into chaos, and even potentially causing riots in the streets," the three-member hearing committee ruled in its report. "We have found that Mr. Clark attempted to engage in reckless dishonesty."
It could be another year before Clark loses his license. The panel's report will next head to the D.C. bar's Board of Professional Responsibility, which will make its own recommendation to the D.C. Court of Appeals, Politico reported.
Clark faces criminal charges in Georgia for his role in Trump's effort to challenge the results in that state and he was identified as an alleged co-conspirator in charges special counsel Jack Smith brought against Trump for attempting to contest the election.
He remains a close ally of Trump and is considered a candidate to be attorney general, Politico said. Trump considering naming Clark his acting attorney general two weeks before he left the White House but backed down after numerous officials threatened to resign.
In late 2020, Clark began pressuring people in the Department of Justice to send a letter to state legislatures about widespread concerns about voter fraud, the panel's report said. Senior aides in the White House and DOJ officials said Clark's claims were false.
Clark refused to review FBI case files and speak with U.S. attorneys who raised doubts his claims, the report said.
"Ultimately, Mr. Clark persisted in a plan so extreme that a room full of President Trump's closest appointed advisors all considered it to be catastrophic," the report said. "Ultimately President Trump, himself, rejected sending the letter, twice."
The panel heard testimony from former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and his deputy Richard Donoghue who said they were frustrated Clark kept pushing false claims of voter fraud, Politico reported.
Clark's attorneys vowed to appeal, calling the ruling an "outrageous power grab" in a statement.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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