Lawyers file ethics complaint against DOJ official for 2020 elections – JURIST – News



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A group of lawyers on Tuesday deposit an ethics complaint against Jeffrey B. Clark, member of the Bar of the District of Columbia, former Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and former Acting Chief of Civil Division Division. The group said it believed Clark violated ethical rules when he sought to have the Justice Department initiate a process that would have overturned the 2020 presidential election results in several states.

On December 28, 2020, two weeks after the Electoral College voted for US President, Clark sent his superiors, Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, a letter he had written. He asked them to join him in signing it on behalf of the ministry. The opening paragraph read:

The Department of Justice is investigating various irregularities in the 2020 election for President of the United States. The Department will update you as soon as possible on the progress of the investigation, but at this point we have identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of elections in several states, including the state of Georgia. There is no doubt that many lawmakers in the state of Georgia are aware of the irregularities, sworn by various witnesses, and we have taken note of their complaints.

In the 15-page complaint, the group alleged that Clark knew the statement he wrote was completely false because the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency said the election was the safest presidential election in American history. Additionally, before Clark delivered his letter to Rosen and Donoghue, several courts in the United States, including the Supreme Court of Georgia, had rejected allegations of electoral fraud filed on behalf of President Trump.

However, Clark still proposed that the DOJ send letters to heads of state, including those in Georgia, claiming that the DOJ “has identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of elections in several states.” According to the complaint, Clark’s alleged attempt to disseminate these false statements had “Huge destabilizing potential for the whole nation” and he should therefore face disciplinary action for his fault.

The ethics complaint was signed by 34 lawyers in total.

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