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Another Tool to Use Against Trump: Disbarment [1]
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Date: 2025-02-26
Yes, WaPo is crumbling before our eyes, but it still has some good columnists. This morning, they allowed an op-ed by Bruce E. Yannett, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, and now a criminal defense attorney in New York, about one way to strike back at Trump: Prosecutors seeking ‘retribution’ for Trump can be disbarred.
[T]hose willing to do the president’s bidding might have forgotten one important protection built into the justice system: Lawyers are governed by ethical rules regulated by state bar associations and state courts. And those authorities can and do discipline — and even disbar — lawyers who order, assist or engage in unlawful conduct. [emphasis added]
Even federal prosecutors arguing in federal court are subject to state bar discipline (there is, it seems, no federal bar association, though AFAIR the Supreme Court has its own separate rules). These bar associations have no connection to the federal government and are shielded from Trump’s malice. (I won’t say immune, since Agent Krasnov’s malice knows no bounds, but he will find it more difficult to coerce them.)
State bar associations have stepped up before to discipline Trump’s lawyers for misbehaving in federal court:
Though state authorities have historically been reluctant to police the conduct of federal prosecutors, they now will have no choice but to shed that reluctance and show the kind of courage they did after the 2020 elections. Then, disciplinary authorities in New York, California and the District of Columbia sought to suspend and even disbar not only such high-profile private lawyers as Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, but also then-Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, for engaging in dishonesty or undermining the administration of justice.
This is particularly significant for the DC bar, since Trump has promised to go after his political enemies in Congress and the DOJ.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and her team should be aware that the District has set uniquely high standards for prosecutors. They will face discipline if they “invidiously discriminate” in their decisions about whom to investigate or prosecute. And they can face a similar fate if they go to trial on charges they know are not supported by sufficient evidence of guilt. The D.C. ethics rules are clear: “A prosecutor has the responsibility of a minister of justice and not simply that of an advocate.”
Indeed, a number of lawyers, including some in the DC USDA’s office, have already resigned rather than violate that principle: Supervisor in DC federal prosecutors’ office told to resign after dispute over investigation:
Denise Cheung, a longtime Justice Department official who led the office’s criminal division, wrote in a resignation letter that interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin ordered her to seek a freeze on assets related to the contract and to issue grand jury subpoenas despite her believing there was an insufficient basis for doing so.
That isn’t Martin’s only egregious action, not by a long shot: D.C. U.S. attorney probing Democrats over alleged threats, documents show:
Analysts say Ed Martin’s ‘Operation Whirlwind,’ which targets statements by Democrats and others about Elon Musk, justices and government workers, is meant to stifle criticism.
DC bar association, take note.
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