The U.S. Department of Justice logo is before a news conference, Monday, May 4, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is challenging efforts to sanction attorneys from the first and second Trump administrations, asserting in a lawsuit that the District of Columbia Bar is unfairly playing politics with the legal disciplinary process.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, represents a direct challenge to the authority of the office that enforces ethics standards for attorneys in the nation’s capital where several high-profile investigations of Trump-allied lawyers are playing out.
“The D.C. Bar will no longer be permitted to probe sensitive executive branch deliberations and target executive branch officials with whom they happen to politically disagree, and federal attorneys will once again be free to share their candid legal advice with their bosses and colleagues,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, a top Justice Department official, said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Washington. An email seeking comment to the D.C. Bar’s Board on Professional Responsibility did not receive an immediate response.
