Just days after the Trump Justice Department proposed a rule to combat the left’s use of “barfare” to destroy conservative lawyers, the legal disciplinary authority in the Department’s own backyard may have vindicated its effort by launching an attack on U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.
On March 6, the Washington, D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel filed charges and initiated disciplinary proceedings against the MAGA stalwart in a case that could drag on for months or longer, waste precious taxpayer resources, and result in sanctions up to and including disbarment.
The Disciplinary Counsel claims that Martin, then-serving as Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, violated his oath of office. How? He alleges that when Martin sent letters to Georgetown Law School’s leaders asking whether the school was continuing to teach and promote DEI, suggesting the school should stop, and indicating that its responses could bear on its nonprofit status and federal funding, he violated the First and Fifth Amendments.
After a retired judge and Georgetown Law alumnus brought a complaint over the alleged impropriety of the inquiry, the Counsel solicited a response from Martin. Martin initially declined, appealing to the judges of the D.C. Court of Appeals — which presides over the disciplinary authority — to resolve the matter, alleging the Disciplinary Counsel
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