DC Bar Targeted a Trump Lawyer for Enforcing a Presidential Order and the DOJ Just Struck Back

The DC Bar just charged a Trump administration attorney with ethics violations for refusing to hire from a law school that was openly violating federal law.

That attorney had already warned the Bar's disciplinary chief that his tribunal was running partisan hit jobs on conservatives.

What the DC Bar did to him next will make your blood boil.

Ed Martin Faces Disbarment for Enforcing Trump's DEI Executive Order

Ed Martin served as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia last year.

When a whistleblower told him that Georgetown Law School was still pushing DEI in its curriculum – in violation of President Trump's executive order banning DEI at federally funded institutions – Martin sent the school a letter.

He told Georgetown his office would not hire its students as fellows, interns, or employees until it cleaned up its act.

Georgetown's dean called it an attack on the school's Catholic mission.

Hamilton Fox III – the DC Bar's disciplinary counsel, who functions as a quasi-prosecutor on attorney conduct matters – filed formal ethics charges against Martin earlier this month.

Fox alleges Martin violated attorney ethics rules by enforcing the president's order.

Fox also alleges Martin broke the rules by writing directly to DC court judges to complain about Fox's conduct – after Martin had already put Fox on notice in early 2025 that his tribunal appeared to be targeting conservatives for political reasons.

The DOJ fired back immediately.

"The DC bar's attempt to target and punish those serving President Trump while refusing to investigate or act against actual ethical violations committed by Biden and Obama administration attorneys is a clear indication of this partisan organization's agenda," a DOJ spokesperson said.

The Lawfare Pattern Behind the Jeff Clark Disbarment

Martin's case did not come out of nowhere.

The DC Bar has been running this same playbook against conservative lawyers for years.

Jeff Clark served as Acting Assistant Attorney General in 2020.

He wrote a draft letter to Georgia officials raising questions about election integrity – a letter his own superiors reviewed, rejected, and never sent.

For drafting a memo that never left the building, the DC Bar recommended last July that Clark be disbarred.

Even former Attorney General William Barr – who opposed Clark's election challenge – called the recommendation excessive.

Three former attorneys general, including Jeff Sessions and Michael Mukasey, filed a brief on Clark's behalf calling the proceeding an extraordinary intrusion by a local body into the internal deliberations of the executive branch.

Clark called the proceedings "barfare" – the left's strategy for picking conservative lawyers off the playing field by hitting them with expensive, time-consuming ethics complaints before partisan disciplinary panels.

Now Martin's case arrives – just days after the Trump DOJ proposed its counterattack.

What the DOJ's New Rule Would Actually Do

On February 26, the Justice Department proposed a formal rule giving the attorney general a right of first review on any ethics complaint filed against a current or former DOJ lawyer.

Under the proposal, if a state bar authority opens an investigation into a department lawyer's official conduct, it must suspend that probe pending the DOJ's own review.

If a bar authority refuses to pause, the department would have authority to take "appropriate action" to enforce the regulation.

The rule matters because the pattern is now documented across multiple cases.

John Eastman, who provided Trump legal counsel in 2020, faced yearslong disbarment proceedings in California.

Rudy Giuliani lost his New York law license entirely.

Jeff Clark is fighting disbarment in DC.

Ed Martin is the latest target – charged by the same disciplinary counsel he had already accused of running a partisan operation.

The goal is not to win these proceedings.

The goal is to make Republican lawyers radioactive – drain their finances, occupy their time, and signal to anyone else who might consider representing a conservative president what awaits them.

Russiagate Felon Kevin Clinesmith Is in Good Standing While Trump Lawyers Face Disbarment

Kevin Clinesmith was a senior FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty in 2020 to falsifying a federal document – doctoring a CIA email used to justify a FISA surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser.

That warrant was later declared illegal.

Clinesmith was sentenced to probation, not prison.

The DC Bar did not initiate disciplinary proceedings against him until five months after his guilty plea – and only after a press outlet reported the bar's inaction publicly.

The bar then let Clinesmith off with a one-year suspension, applied retroactively, without confirming he had completed his probation requirements.

Clinesmith is today an active member of the DC Bar in good standing.

Jeff Clark – who wrote a letter he never sent – faces disbarment.

Ed Martin – who enforced a presidential executive order – faces ethics charges.

The board that recommended Clark's disbarment was composed, according to a review of public records, predominantly of registered Democrats or contributors to Democratic candidates.

The same disciplinary counsel who gave Clinesmith a slap on the wrist is the one who went after Martin.

His name is Hamilton Fox III.

Ed Martin told him in writing, in February 2025, that his operation looked like a partisan targeting machine.

Twelve months later, Fox proved him right – and now every conservative lawyer in America knows exactly what happens when you work for a Republican president.

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Sources:

• Ben Weingarten, "Trump DOJ Is Finally Taking On The Corrupt DC Bar Association," The Federalist, March 12, 2026.
• "Review of State Bar Complaints and Allegations Against Department of Justice Attorneys," Federal Register, March 5, 2026.
• "DC Bar Files Disciplinary Charges Against DOJ Official Ed Martin," The Gateway Pundit, March 10, 2026.
• M.D. Kittle, "Corrupt DC Bar Moves To Disbar Jeff Clark After Restoring Russiagate Felon Kevin Clinesmith," The Federalist, August 1, 2025.
• "Political Retribution: Former AGs Slam DC Bar's Dangerous Crusade Against Jeff Clark," The Federalist, September 26, 2025.
• Ben Weingarten, "DC Bar Restores Convicted FBI Russiagate Lawyer to Good Standing Amid Irregularities," RealClearInvestigations, December 16, 2021.