D.C. panel urges disbarment for Trump official Jeffrey Clark

By David Thomas

July 31 (Reuters) - White House official Jeffrey Clark should be stripped of his Washington, D.C., law license for his efforts to help President Donald Trump overturn his 2020 election defeat, an attorney regulatory panel said on Thursday.

Clark, as a senior U.S. Department of Justice official during Trump's first term, was "prepared to cause the Justice Department to tell a lie about the status of its investigation" into the presidential election, a majority of the nine-member D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility found. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

"Lawyers cannot advocate for any outcome based on false statements and they certainly cannot urge others to do so," the majority of the board said. Clark "persistently and energetically sought to do just that on an important national issue."

The board's ruling tees up Clark's case for action before the D.C. Court of Appeals, which has the final say on attorney disciplinary matters in the District.

Clark currently leads the White House Office of Management and Budget division charged with vetting proposed executive branch rules. OMB spokesperson Rachel Cauley called the D.C. Board's recommendation "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," Cauley said.

Hamilton Fox, head of the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, declined to comment. Lawyers for Clark, who has denied wrongdoing, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Clark in December 2020 proposed sending a letter to Georgia's governor and top state lawmakers falsely asserting the Justice Department had "identified significant concerns" about the election in Georgia and other states, according to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

The letter urged state lawmakers to convene to investigate purported election irregularities and consider sending a slate of presidential electors for Trump despite Biden’s win in the state.

Justice Department leaders refused to send the letter. Trump backed off plans to name Clark acting attorney general when the leadership of the Justice Department and White House lawyers threatened to resign in protest.

Two members of the D.C. ethics board disagreed with the majority's sanction on Thursday, saying that Clark should be suspended for three years. A three-member committee recommended a two-year suspension for Clark in an August 2024 report.