Lindsey Halligan Under Investigation And The DOJ Is Big Mad About It - Above the Law

"The last remaining check on DOJ misconduct, I've argued, is the fear that a state licensing authority will look at their ethical violations and prevent them from seamlessly transitioning back to private practice. Criminal accountability is impossible between sovereign immunity and blanket pardons and the DOJ gutted its own Office of Professional Responsibility."

"Bar discipline is the only monkeywrench left to jam in the revolving door. Apparently the DOJ read my column and the response was: 'Oh yeah? What if we just... make that illegal too?' But why rush this undercooked rule proposal out the door this week?"

The Department of Justice proposed a regulation that would grant Attorney General Pam Bondi unilateral power to block state bar ethics investigations into current and former government lawyers. This proposal eliminates one of the last remaining mechanisms for holding DOJ officials accountable, as criminal accountability is blocked by sovereign immunity and pardons, and the DOJ has dismantled its own Office of Professional Responsibility. State bar discipline represents the final check preventing government lawyers from seamlessly transitioning to private practice without consequences. The proposal appears designed as an intimidating threat rather than a legally coherent rule, following a pattern of DOJ overreach. The timing suggests a state may have recently pursued ethics investigations against DOJ officials, prompting this preemptive regulatory action.

Read at Above the Law