A Washington, D.C., attorney disciplinary board has recommended disbarring White House official Jeffrey Clark for his role in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in support of President Donald Trump.
The Board on Professional Responsibility issued its recommendation Thursday, stating that Clark “was prepared to cause the Justice Department to tell a lie about the status of its investigation” into the 2020 election.
“Lawyers cannot advocate for any outcome based on false statements, and they certainly cannot urge others to do so,” the panel wrote in its opinion.
“Respondent persistently and energetically sought to do just that on an important national issue. He should be disbarred as a consequence and to send a message to the rest of the Bar and to the public that this behavior will not be tolerated.”
Seven of the nine board members supported disbarment, while two recommended a three-year suspension with a requirement that Clark demonstrate fitness to practice law before any reinstatement. The final decision will rest with the D.C. Court of Appeals.
“The fight continues,” Clark posted in response to the decision on X.
Clark currently serves as acting administrator of the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. During Trump’s first term, he was acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Division and backed Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.
The board’s decision centers on a letter Clark drafted in late December 2020, following President Trump’s election loss to then-candidate Joe Biden. In the letter, which was intended for Georgia state officials, Clark claimed the Justice Department had “significant concerns” about the state’s election results—despite no evidence supporting that claim within the department itself.
The letter urged Georgia’s governor to convene a special legislative session to consider replacing Biden’s electors with Trump-aligned ones—a strategy now widely known as part of the fake electors scheme.
Though warned against sending the letter by two DOJ superiors, Clark, whose department role had no involvement with elections, continued to advocate for its transmission.
At one point, President Trump considered appointing Clark as acting attorney general, replacing then-Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen. He ultimately backed away from the idea after senior Justice Department officials threatened to resign en masse if the change were made.
