The Daily Fuckup

The Justice Department filed a complaint on Wednesday, May 13, 2026, against D.C. Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton P. Fox III, the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, and the D.C. Court of Appeals Board on Professional Responsibility. The department says those entities used the bar discipline process in an improper way when handling matters involving federal government attorneys. It also says the filing is part of President Donald Trump’s effort to end what he has called the weaponization of the federal government. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-complaint-against-dc-bar-disciplinary-authorities-over-their))

At the center of the complaint is former Assistant Attorney General Jeff Clark. DOJ says the D.C. Bar’s prosecution of Clark should be nullified because it was based on internal deliberations tied to possible fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election. The complaint says those events remain the subject of litigation years later. The D.C. disciplinary case file shows the Board on Professional Responsibility issued a report and recommendation on July 31, 2025, and that the case has remained active in the D.C. Court of Appeals. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-complaint-against-dc-bar-disciplinary-authorities-over-their))

The filing is more than a routine procedural fight. It places the Justice Department in direct conflict with the D.C. disciplinary system, which includes the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and the Board on Professional Responsibility under the D.C. Court of Appeals. DOJ argues that disciplinary officials exceeded their proper role by probing executive-branch legal work. The disciplinary system’s public materials identify the Office of Disciplinary Counsel as the place where complaints against lawyers are filed and the Board on Professional Responsibility as the body handling discipline matters. ([dcbar.org](https://www.dcbar.org/Attorney-Discipline))

DOJ has already signaled that it views the D.C. bar’s work as part of a broader dispute over how lawyers tied to the Trump administration should be treated. Last week, the department filed a statement of interest supporting former interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin in a separate effort to move a D.C. Bar matter into a federal forum. In the Clark filing, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the D.C. Bar “a blatantly partisan arm of leftist causes,” while Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said federal attorneys should be free to give candid advice to their supervisors. Those are DOJ’s characterizations, not findings from a court. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-complaint-against-dc-bar-disciplinary-authorities-over-their))

For now, the complaint is a new front in an older battle over post-2020 election conduct and the reach of lawyer discipline. Whether the court accepts DOJ’s theory will turn on the filing itself and the record already built in the disciplinary case. What is not in dispute is the timing: the Justice Department’s complaint landed on May 13, 2026, one day before the publication date of this edition. ([justice.gov](https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-files-complaint-against-dc-bar-disciplinary-authorities-over-their))