“Lawfare draws on Maoist and Alinskyite tactics. It’s an attempt not really aimed at disciplining lawbreakers (to see that, witness the rampant crime in New York City) but to destroy political enemies. And no one faces more of it than Trump,” Mr. Clark told The Epoch Times in a statement.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ three-judge panel ruled last month that the subpoena issued by the D.C. Bar Disciplinary Counsel “infringes on Mr. Clark’s Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself” as he defends himself in court cases stemming from the 2020 election.
Mr. Clark, along with former President Donald Trump and 17 other defendants, was indicted in August 2023 by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, over the group’s efforts to dispute the state’s 2020 election results. Mr. Clark also was identified as one of six alleged co-conspirators in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s indictment against President Trump in the federal election case.
The D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel subpoenaed Mr. Clark in 2023 to obtain any documents he might have related to his efforts to dispute the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states.
“I am grateful to the D.C. Court of Appeals for upholding my constitutional rights. But I note the irony that it took extraordinary efforts and significant expense to get the subpoena dispute to that Court after D.C.’s Disciplinary Counsel inexplicably refused to abide by the Constitution,” Mr. Clark said.
Rachel Cauley, spokesman for the think tank Center for Renewing America, where Clark is a senior fellow and director of litigation told The Epoch Times, “Jeff Clark is a highly decorated stalwart who is being attacked simply because he was the only DOJ leader that wanted to thoroughly investigate the 2020 election and not just go through the motions.”
The D.C. bar body is attempting to sanction Mr. Clark over his role in his drafting of a letter in December 2020 addressed to Georgia officials regarding the Department of Justice “investigating various irregularities” in the election. The letter, which Mr. Clark emailed to Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and the functional acting number-two in the Department of Justice, Richard Donoghue, for review, was ultimately blocked by Mr. Rosen and Mr. Donoghue.
Mr. Clark was included in the Georgia election case because of the letter and events surrounding it.
During oral argument at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on Feb. 23, Hamilton “Phil” Fox, disciplinary counsel for the D.C. Bar, acknowledged that “this entire case is built around a letter that Mr. Clark wanted the Department of Justice to send [to Georgia state officials].”
When Judge John P. Howard III asked Mr. Fox about letting the case in Fulton County, Georgia against Clark to “litigate out” before holding a disciplinary hearing against Mr. Clark, Fox stated that he has “no faith whatsoever” in the Georgia case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Mr. Clark’s sanctions hearing before the D.C. Bar disciplinary committee is scheduled to begin on March 26. He is maintaining executive privilege in the case as instructed by President Trump through his lawyers.
