A coalition of 20 state attorneys general on Friday urged a federal judge to dismiss a Trump administration lawsuit that seeks to halt disciplinary proceedings against Jeffrey Clark. Former US assistant attorney general Clark faces disbarment over his apparent collaboration in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
In their brief, the attorneys general argued that regulating attorneys is a state police power under the Tenth Amendment. They also wrote that no government lawyer is exempt from professional-conduct rules. The coalition pointed to the McDade-Murtha Amendment, 28 U.S.C. § 530B, under which federal attorneys are subject to the ethics rules of their jurisdiction. They then highlighted the Younger abstention doctrine, under which federal courts generally refrain from interfering with pending state proceedings. Finally, the group warned that a ruling for the administration could immunize federal attorneys from discipline, regardless of their conduct. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Justice Department lawyers should not “get special treatment” or be exempt from federal ethics requirements.
The DOJ filed the suit on May 13 against the District of Columbia, its Court of Appeals, Office of Disciplinary Counsel, Board on Professional Responsibility, and disciplinary officials. It argued that the proceedings violate the Supremacy Clause and Article II of the Constitution by reaching internal executive-branch deliberations. The department framed the case as part of its campaign against the perceived “weaponization” of the legal system. It also contended that exposing government lawyers to bar discipline deters them from giving sound legal advice. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has publicly accused the DC Bar of partisan bias.
Clark, an assistant attorney general late in the first Trump administration, drafted a letter in late 2020 urging Georgia officials to investigate claimed election irregularities and consider naming an alternate slate of presidential electors. The letter was never sent. Then-Attorney General William Barr had already stated that the department found no fraud sufficient to change the election’s outcome. After a 2021 complaint from the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Office of Disciplinary Counsel opened proceedings in 2022. A hearing committee found in 2024 that Clark had attempted to engage in dishonesty in violation of the DC Rules of Professional Conduct, and in July 2025 the Board on Professional Responsibility recommended his disbarment. That recommendation is pending before the DC Court of Appeals; at the moment, Clark remains a bar member in good standing.
Notably, three of the attorneys general hailed from states that Donald Trump carried in 2024: Arizona, Michigan and North Carolina.
