Todd Blanche Faces New York Bar Complaint After Federal Judge Flags Vindictive Prosecution - Above the Law

Todd Blanche sought to prevent state bar regulators from investigating ethical breaches by government lawyers. A DOJ rule proposal would overturn federal statute and remove local disciplinary officials’ authority to police government and former government lawyers for ethics violations, including after-the-fact regulation of law licenses. Blanche also sued the D.C. Bar over its investigation of Jeff Clark for allegedly proposing that the DOJ lie about nonexistent voting irregularities to suppress the electorate. The Campaign for Accountability urged professional bodies to investigate Blanche’s role in the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, including New York and Southern District of New York grievance committees and Tennessee’s professional responsibility board. The request builds on a federal judge’s dismissal of the indictment as a presumptively vindictive prosecution, naming Blanche’s involvement.

"Todd Blanche has spent the last few months trying to make sure state bar regulators can't investigate ethical breaches by government lawyers. Before Blanche rose to the Acting Attorney General role, the DOJ dropped a new rule proposal that would overturn federal statute and strip local disciplinary officials of the authority to police government and former government lawyers for ethics violations committed in their jurisdictions, or even to after-the-fact regulate the law licenses of practitioners caught acting unethically."

"Then he brought a suit against the D.C. Bar for having the audacity to investigate Jeff Clark for allegedly proposing that the DOJ lie about voting irregularities that didn't exist in order to suppress the will of the electorate. Trump's lawyers know that professional discipline is the only accountability they might ever face, and they mean to head it off at the pass."

"Despite Blanche's zeal for scaring disciplinary authorities away from doing their jobs, the Campaign for Accountability continues to ask the profession to remain vigilant about protecting the public. This week, the Campaign asked the Attorney Grievance Committee of New York's First Judicial Department - and the Committee on Grievances for the Southern District of New York - to investigate Blanche and his role in the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The group also shipped a copy to Tennessee's Board of Professional Responsibility, since that's where the bogus indictment actually landed."

"On May 22, Chief U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. dismissed the indictment against Abrego Garcia as the unrebutted product of a presumptively vindictive prosecution. Judge Crenshaw did not leave the responsibility floating around in the passive voice the way these opinions usually do. He named a name: Instead"

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