DC Bar targets Ed Martin amid DOJ bid for oversight of attorney discipline
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
The District of Columbia’s attorney disciplinary body has filed ethics charges against Ed Martin, a senior Justice Department official in the Trump administration, as the department seeks to curb the role of state bar associations in policing federal attorneys.
The complaint, submitted Friday to the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility, accuses Martin of professional misconduct tied to actions he took while briefly serving as U.S. attorney for the district.
Ed Martin speaks at the Capitol in Washington, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
The case escalates a broader clash between the DOJ and state bar authorities. Attorney General Pam Bondi last week proposed a policy that, if approved, would require state disciplinary bodies to pause investigations into current or former DOJ attorneys until the department first conducts its own internal review.
Under the proposal, the DOJ would ask bar associations to “suspend any parallel investigations” during that process. DOJ officials warned they could take further steps to enforce the rule if it is finalized, arguing that outside disciplinary bodies have increasingly been used to target federal lawyers over partisan differences.
On Tuesday, DOJ officials blasted the D.C. Bar’s action against Martin as politically motivated.
“The DC Bar is such a blatantly Democrat-run political organization,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Thank God I’m not a member, and trust me, I never will be.”
DOJ spokeswoman Emily Covington said the disciplinary body was attempting to “target and punish those serving President Trump while refusing to investigate or act against actual ethical violations that were committed by Biden and Obama administration attorneys.” Critics have cited as examples former special counsel Jack Smith and former U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who directed much of his office’s attention to prosecuting Trump supporters from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Covington pointed out the imbalance of attorney discipline measures across the district and for other state bar associations, noting “DC-barred members of Biden’s special counsel were found to have acted against President Trump without legal authority and in clear violation of the Constitution, yet the bar did nothing.”
She added that the Biden administration‘s former pardon attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, “clearly violated her ethical duty by publicly commenting on privileged communications she had while …
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
The District of Columbia’s attorney disciplinary body has filed ethics charges against Ed Martin, a senior Justice Department official in the Trump administration, as the department seeks to curb the role of state bar associations in policing federal attorneys.
The complaint, submitted Friday to the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility, accuses Martin of professional misconduct tied to actions he took while briefly serving as U.S. attorney for the district.
Ed Martin speaks at the Capitol in Washington, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
The case escalates a broader clash between the DOJ and state bar authorities. Attorney General Pam Bondi last week proposed a policy that, if approved, would require state disciplinary bodies to pause investigations into current or former DOJ attorneys until the department first conducts its own internal review.
Under the proposal, the DOJ would ask bar associations to “suspend any parallel investigations” during that process. DOJ officials warned they could take further steps to enforce the rule if it is finalized, arguing that outside disciplinary bodies have increasingly been used to target federal lawyers over partisan differences.
On Tuesday, DOJ officials blasted the D.C. Bar’s action against Martin as politically motivated.
“The DC Bar is such a blatantly Democrat-run political organization,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Thank God I’m not a member, and trust me, I never will be.”
DOJ spokeswoman Emily Covington said the disciplinary body was attempting to “target and punish those serving President Trump while refusing to investigate or act against actual ethical violations that were committed by Biden and Obama administration attorneys.” Critics have cited as examples former special counsel Jack Smith and former U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who directed much of his office’s attention to prosecuting Trump supporters from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Covington pointed out the imbalance of attorney discipline measures across the district and for other state bar associations, noting “DC-barred members of Biden’s special counsel were found to have acted against President Trump without legal authority and in clear violation of the Constitution, yet the bar did nothing.”
She added that the Biden administration‘s former pardon attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, “clearly violated her ethical duty by publicly commenting on privileged communications she had while …
DC Bar targets Ed Martin amid DOJ bid for oversight of attorney discipline
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.
The District of Columbia’s attorney disciplinary body has filed ethics charges against Ed Martin, a senior Justice Department official in the Trump administration, as the department seeks to curb the role of state bar associations in policing federal attorneys.
The complaint, submitted Friday to the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility, accuses Martin of professional misconduct tied to actions he took while briefly serving as U.S. attorney for the district.
Ed Martin speaks at the Capitol in Washington, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)
The case escalates a broader clash between the DOJ and state bar authorities. Attorney General Pam Bondi last week proposed a policy that, if approved, would require state disciplinary bodies to pause investigations into current or former DOJ attorneys until the department first conducts its own internal review.
Under the proposal, the DOJ would ask bar associations to “suspend any parallel investigations” during that process. DOJ officials warned they could take further steps to enforce the rule if it is finalized, arguing that outside disciplinary bodies have increasingly been used to target federal lawyers over partisan differences.
On Tuesday, DOJ officials blasted the D.C. Bar’s action against Martin as politically motivated.
“The DC Bar is such a blatantly Democrat-run political organization,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “Thank God I’m not a member, and trust me, I never will be.”
DOJ spokeswoman Emily Covington said the disciplinary body was attempting to “target and punish those serving President Trump while refusing to investigate or act against actual ethical violations that were committed by Biden and Obama administration attorneys.” Critics have cited as examples former special counsel Jack Smith and former U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, who directed much of his office’s attention to prosecuting Trump supporters from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Covington pointed out the imbalance of attorney discipline measures across the district and for other state bar associations, noting “DC-barred members of Biden’s special counsel were found to have acted against President Trump without legal authority and in clear violation of the Constitution, yet the bar did nothing.”
She added that the Biden administration‘s former pardon attorney, Elizabeth Oyer, “clearly violated her ethical duty by publicly commenting on privileged communications she had while …
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