"Criminal accountability is a non-starter between sovereign immunity and the inevitable blanket pardons Trump will issue. The Department has declared "war" on judges invoking contempt powers. And Justice already gutted its internal disciplinary resources. All that's left to deter the rampant ethical violations committed by government lawyers is for local bar licensing authorities to impose discipline."
"The DOJ plopped a proposed regulation on the Federal Register that would authorize Attorney General Pam Bondi to block any state bar ethics investigation into current and former DOJ lawyers while the department conducts its own internal review. If state bar authorities refuse the AG's "request" to pause an investigation, the rule allows the DOJ to "take appropriate action to prevent the bar disciplinary authorities from interfering.""
"There is no action the DOJ could possibly take against a state professional regulator that would be "appropriate." Certainly not under basic principles of federalism and federal statute. But the vagueness is the point. It's a threat designed to bully state regulators to stay silent rather than have to dive into a protracted fight with the deeper pockets of the federal gov."
Professional discipline authorities represent the final accountability mechanism for Trump administration lawyers accused of repeatedly lying to courts and defying judicial orders. Criminal accountability is unlikely due to sovereign immunity and presidential pardons, while the Justice Department has weakened its internal disciplinary resources. A proposed DOJ regulation would grant the Attorney General authority to halt state bar ethics investigations into current and former federal lawyers during internal departmental reviews. The regulation threatens unspecified "appropriate action" against state bar authorities who refuse to pause investigations. This vague threat appears designed to intimidate state regulators into abandoning disciplinary proceedings rather than engaging in costly legal battles with the federal government.
#doj-ethics-violations #state-bar-discipline #federal-regulation #professional-accountability #federalism
Read at Above the Law
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]