2026-05-14T14:48:08.663Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：卡尼塔·艾尔、凯特琳·波兰茨
发布时间：2026年5月14日 美国东部时间上午10:48
何塞·路易斯·马加尼亚/美联社
美国司法部已对华盛顿特区律师惩戒机构提起诉讼，反对其建议取消杰弗里·克拉克的律师资格。克拉克是唐纳德·特朗普的长期盟友，因其为支持时任总统而“质疑”2020年选举结果的行为面临惩戒。
此次诉讼针对的是华盛顿特区纪律惩戒办公室、职业责任委员会、上诉法院及相关机构和特区政府。诉讼方认为，2020年时任助理司法部长的克拉克不应因其“行政部门内部审议行为”受到惩戒。
此次诉讼发起之际，特朗普政府正重新聚焦2020年大选，重点关注特朗普声称选举存在舞弊的佐治亚州。例如，美国司法部已向亚特兰大所在的富尔顿县发出传票，要求提供2020年大选工作人员的个人信息。
在2025年7月提出的取消克拉克律师资格的建议中，华盛顿特区职业责任委员会写道，2020大选结束后，克拉克“敦促司法部领导层发布他起草的一份质疑选举结果的信函”，尽管司法部领导层已告知他其理论并不成立。
克拉克撰写但从未发出的这封信函，敦促佐治亚州州议会调查选举“违规行为”，必要时自行任命与普选结果相悖的选举人。这封信旨在作为“概念验证”，最终将被寄往多个州。
该委员会多数成员——负责审查律师惩戒案件，但在特区律师执照问题上没有最终决定权——建议取消克拉克的律师资格。根据特区律师协会记录，克拉克目前仍是合规在册的特区律师。
美国司法部在周三提起的诉讼中辩称：“被告方之所以惩罚克拉克先生，是因为他曾试图说服司法部内部上级，他们应该发布他认为符合2020年大选实际法律和事实的信函草案。”
“但华盛顿特区惩戒机构不能仅仅因为不同意某位联邦官员与上级或同事的意见分歧，或是反对其分享的观点，就对其进行惩罚，”诉讼文件补充道。
诉讼文件进一步称，此类惩戒行动将开创令人寒心的先例。
“以这种方式利用州律师惩戒权对付行政部门律师，会让他们不敢向包括总统和司法部长在内的其他行政部门同僚提供坦诚的法律建议，”诉讼文件写道。
克拉克在X平台的社交媒体帖子中表示，此次诉讼“是维护三权分立的重要一步”。CNN已联系克拉克寻求进一步置评。
在2025年7月的惩戒建议中，华盛顿特区职业责任委员会辩称，律师应具备“最高标准的职业操守。至少，他们必须诚实”。
克拉克“因此应被取消律师资格”，该委员会写道，并补充称这一决定将传递一个信号：他的行为不可容忍。
该委员会的建议随后被提交至华盛顿特区上诉法院等待最终裁决。
在该委员会提出惩戒建议时，克拉克担任白宫管理和预算办公室信息与监管事务办公室代理主任。
他目前是保守派监督组织“监督项目”的副总裁。克拉克最近以律师身份出庭联邦法院，参与一起涉及要求公布前总统乔·拜登与代笔人谈话录音的公开记录案件。
此次诉讼发起之际，正值特朗普第二任期内，美国司法部加大了对法律行业自我监管传统的反对力度。该政府去年曾试图削弱部分律师在特朗普不满的大型律师事务所代理客户的能力，今年则试图修改规则，以便司法部能够介入阻止州律师协会对其部分律师开展道德审查。
美国司法部的这两项举措均遭到法律行业广泛批评，被指试图废除律师执业时应遵守的职业标准。
“华盛顿特区律师协会将不再被允许调查敏感的行政部门内部审议行为，也不再能因政治分歧而针对行政部门官员，联邦律师将再次能够向上司和同事坦诚分享法律建议，”提起诉讼的司法部第三号律师斯坦利·伍德沃德在一份声明中说道。
汉密尔顿·福克斯的办公室未立即回应置评请求。福克斯是此次诉讼的被告之一，同时也是多年前对克拉克提起道德指控的华盛顿特区纪律惩戒办公室负责人。
与此同时，美国联邦调查局已就司法部所称的佐治亚州富尔顿县2020年大选执行过程中的违规行为展开刑事调查。作为调查的一部分，该局于今年1月搜查了富尔顿县选举办公室并扣押了选举材料。
已有多名律师因试图推翻2020年总统大选结果而面临惩戒程序，包括今年早些时候在加州被取消律师资格的约翰·伊斯曼。
美国有线电视新闻网的汉娜·拉比诺维茨对本文亦有贡献。
Justice Department sues DC’s attorney disciplinary authorities for recommending a Trump ally be disbarred
2026-05-14T14:48:08.663Z / CNN
By Kaanita Iyer, Katelyn Polantz
PUBLISHED May 14, 2026, 10:48 AM ET
FILE – Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor, in Oxon Hill, Md. , Feb. 23, 2024.
Jose Luis Magana/AP
The Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Washington, DC’s attorney disciplinary authorities following their recommendation to disbar Jeffrey Clark, a longtime ally of Donald Trump, over his efforts to “cast doubt” on the 2020 election results in support of the president.
The lawsuit against DC’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, Board on Professional Responsibility, Court of Appeals, related authorities and the city itself argues that Clark — who in 2020 was an assistant attorney general — should not be disciplined over “internal Executive Branch deliberations.”
The Justice Department’s lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has taken a renewed interest in the 2020 election, narrowing in on Georgia — where Trump has claimed the election was rigged. For example, the Justice Department has subpoenaed Fulton County — home of Atlanta — for 2020 election workers’ personal information.
In its July 2025 recommendation to disbar Clark, the DC Board on Professional Responsibility wrote that after the 2020 election, he “urged Justice Department leadership to issue a letter he had drafted that cast doubt on the election results” despite being told by department leadership his theory was not correct.
The letter Clark wrote, but never sent, urged the Georgia state legislature to investigate election “irregularities” and, if necessary, appoint electors themselves that go against the results of the popular vote. The letter was meant to be a “proof of concept” that would eventually be sent to several states.
A majority of the board — which examines attorney discipline cases but does not have the final say the local courts have on law licenses in the district — recommended disbarment. Clark is still an attorney in good standing in the DC bar, according to bar records.
The Justice Department argued in its Wednesday lawsuit, “Defendants are punishing Mr. Clark because he tried to persuade his superiors within the Department of Justice that they should issue a draft letter that he felt reflected the actual law and facts about the 2020 election.”
“But D.C. disciplinary authorities may not punish a United States official for disagreeing with a superior or coworker or for sharing an opinion just because those disciplinary authorities disagree with it,” the lawsuit adds.
It goes on to claim that such disciplinary actions will set a chilling precedent.
“Weaponizing state bar discipline against Executive Branch attorneys in this way chills them from giving candid legal advice to others in the Executive Branch, including the President and Attorney General,” the lawsuit says.
Clark said in a social media post on X that the lawsuit “is an important step to vindicate the separation of powers.” CNN has reached out to Clark for further comment.
In its July 2025 recommendation, the DC Board on Professional Responsibility argued that lawyers should have “the highest standard of professional conduct. At a minimum, they must be honest.”
Clark “should be disbarred as a consequence,” the board wrote, adding that it would send a message that his behavior would not be tolerated.
The board’s recommendation was then sent to the DC Court of Appeals for a final decision.
At the time of the board’s recommendation, Clark served as the acting administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
He is now a vice president at Oversight Project, a conservative watchdog group. Clark recently appeared as a lawyer in federal court in an ongoing public records cases seeking the release of audio recordings of former President Joe Biden speaking to a ghost writer.
The lawsuit also comes as the Justice Department has increased its pushback on the self-policing traditions of the legal industry in Trump’s second term. The administration last year attempted to undermine some lawyers’ ability to represent clients at major law firms that Trump disliked, and this year, the department attempted to change a rule to help it step in to block ethics reviews by state bars of some of its attorneys.
Both moves by the Justice Department have been widely criticized by the legal industry as efforts to remove the standards that lawyers adhere to when practicing.
“The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive Executive Branch deliberations and target Executive Branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and Federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues,” Stanley Woodward, the No. 3 lawyer at the Justice Department who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.
The office of Hamilton Fox, who is among those being sued as DC Disciplinary Counsel, which brought the ethics charges against Clark years ago, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the FBI has opened a criminal investigation into what the Justice Department has described as irregularities in how Georgia’s Fulton County carried out the 2020 election. As part of the investigation, the agency searched the Fulton County elections office in January and seized election materials.
Several lawyers have faced disciplinary proceedings for efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including John Eastman, who was disbarred in California earlier this year.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.
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