Judges Detail Horrors They’ve Experienced Since Ruling Against Trump

“While dishonesty is always intolerable, the facts here are significantly aggravating to warrant disbarment: [Clark] was prepared to cause the Justice Department to tell a lie about the status of its investigation of an important national issue (the integrity of the 2020 Presidential election),” the Bar’s board wrote in its recommendation. “Lawyers cannot advocate for any outcome based on false statements and they certainly cannot urge others to do so. [Clark] persistently and energetically sought to do just that on an important national issue.”

Clark, the former acting assistant attorney general in the environmental division of Trump’s Department of Justice, was a key player in the president’s attempted coup. Trump unsuccessfully tried to install him as acting attorney general in early 2021, and Clark then tried and failed to pressure Georgia lawmakers into overturning the election results (for which he was briefly indicted, before being deleted as a co-conspirator).

To the D.C. Bar, this behavior is severe enough that Clark should lose his legal license. “He should be disbarred as a consequence and to send a message to the rest of the Bar and to the public that this behavior will not be tolerated,” it wrote.