Ex-DOJ official’s dis­bar­ment tri­al under­scores cen­tral chal­lenge of Trump Jan. 6 case

A dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing this week for Don­ald Trump‘s ex-Depart­ment of Jus­tice offi­cial Jef­frey Clark show­cased the high bar pros­e­cu­tors must reach in their effort to prove alleged crimes the for­mer pres­i­dent and oth­ers are accused of com­mit­ting in the buildup to the Jan. 6 Capi­tol riot.
Clark, 56, is fight­ing to avoid dis­bar­ment in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., as he faces Board on Pro­fes­sion­al Respon­si­bil­i­ty pro­ceed­ings over alle­ga­tions of dis­hon­est con­duct in the after­math of the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. The dis­bar­ment tri­al con­tin­ued for a third day on Thurs­day with a wit­ness called by Clark’s defense, Don­ald Elliot, a Yale legal expert who said pun­ish­ing the for­mer DOJ offi­cial would set a dan­ger­ous and “chill­ing” prece­dent.
Elliot, who also served as an assis­tant admin­is­tra­tor and gen­er­al coun­sel for the Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency from 1989 to 1991, said Clark’s poten­tial dis­bar­ment would have a “dev­as­tat­ing effect on dia­logue that goes on with­in gov­ern­ment agen­cies,” a point that also high­light­ed the oner­ous fight spe­cial coun­sel Jack S …