Todd Blanche Just Made the Move That Ends the DC Bar as a Leftist Weapon

Kevin Clinesmith forged a federal document to spy on Trump's team and kept his law license.

Jeff Clark wrote a letter his own bosses rejected and the same bar recommended he be permanently disbarred.

Todd Blanche just filed a lawsuit that exposes exactly how that double standard works.

The Setup: Six Years of Barfare Against a Trump Official

Jeff Clark served as Assistant Attorney General in Trump's first administration.

During post-election deliberations in 2020, he drafted an internal letter raising concerns about potential fraud in Georgia.

His superiors reviewed it and said no.

Clark's draft never became official DOJ policy and never went anywhere.

The DC Bar spent the next six years trying to destroy him for it anyway.

In July 2025, the DC Board on Professional Responsibility recommended Clark be disbarred entirely – for a draft document that stayed in a drawer, over internal deliberations that every lawyer in every administration has the right to conduct.

Clark's law license has been suspended while his appeal remains pending.

Blanche Drops the Hammer

On Wednesday, the Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against the DC Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the DC Board on Professional Responsibility, the DC Court of Appeals, and the District of Columbia itself.

The 25-page complaint, filed by Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, lays out three constitutional violations.

The DC Bar is unlawfully regulating the Executive Branch in violation of the Supremacy Clause.

It is punishing federal attorneys differently than other lawyers based on their political viewpoints.

It is interfering with Article II executive authority by targeting officials for advice given inside the administration.

The DOJ is asking the court to nullify the bar's disciplinary findings against Clark, block any further proceedings tied to his government service, and permanently prevent DC authorities from running the same play again.

Acting AG Blanche put it in two words: "No more."

"As our complaint and history make clear, the DC Bar has long acted as a blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes. No more," Blanche said.

Woodward added: "The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive Executive Branch deliberations and target Executive Branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and Federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues."

The Double Standard That Proves the Point

The lawsuit doesn't just argue the law.

It names names – and the comparison is damning.

FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty to doctoring a CIA email submitted to the FISA court – forging a federal document to justify illegal surveillance of Carter Page.

An actual crime. An actual guilty plea.

The DC Bar gave him a retroactive one-year suspension, then quietly restored him to good standing.

Clark wrote an internal draft his bosses rejected and never sent, and the same bar recommended he lose his law license permanently.

The DOJ complaint also exposes Assistant Disciplinary Counsel Jack Metzler – one of the lawyers pursuing Clark – who posted dozens of ideological messages online while actively seeking Clark's disbarment, including the claim it was "unethical to engage with anti-vaxxers and people who claim there is a debate about birthright citizenship."

Both positions directly oppose Trump administration legal stances.

Clark isn't the only target.

Former interim DC US Attorney Ed Martin – now serving as Trump's pardon attorney – drew ethics charges simply for sending a letter to Georgetown University Law School challenging its DEI practices.

Three former Attorneys General – William Barr, Jeff Sessions, and Michael Mukasey – have all backed Clark, saying disciplining DOJ attorneys for candid internal legal advice is "improper and constitutionally impermissible."

This Is Bigger Than Jeff Clark

What the DC Bar has been running isn't a discipline process.

It's a political veto over who gets to advise a Republican president.

If partisan bar lawyers can disbar an official for a draft memo that never left the building, no attorney in any future conservative administration will ever give frank legal advice again.

That's not an unintended consequence. That's the whole point.

The DOJ lawsuit calls it exactly what it is: a deliberate attempt to "chill" executive branch attorneys from candid counsel – and hand partisan licensing officials a weapon to control the Executive Branch one disbarment threat at a time.

They've been running this game for years.

Trump just told them the game is over.

Sources:

• U.S. Department of Justice, "Justice Department Files Complaint Against D.C. Bar Disciplinary Authorities," DOJ Office of Public Affairs, May 13, 2026.
• "DOJ Goes After DC Bar Association Over Alleged Lawfare Against Trump Admin Attorneys," The Daily Caller, May 14, 2026.
• "DOJ Turns Tables on DC Bar With Suit Over 'Weaponized' Disbarment Effort," RedState, May 14, 2026.
• "DOJ Challenges 'Barfare' By Suing Jeff Clark's DC Persecutors," The Federalist, May 14, 2026.
• "Jeffrey Clark Disbarment Fight Exposes Partisan Weaponization of Bar," Blaze Media, October 4, 2025.
• "Ex-FBI Lawyer Facing Just One-Year Bar Suspension After Guilty Plea for FISA Deception," Washington Examiner, 2021.