Some of these incidents \u2014 in a rational world \u2014 would incur criminal liability. But in a post-Trump v. United States<\/em> world, the executive branch enjoys actual or practical absolute immunity for all manner of lawlessness. And that\u2019s before Trump inevitably pardons the whole legal team on his way out the door. Qualified immunity and a legal system actively hostile to civil liability<\/a> for constitutional violations will protect them from everything else.<\/p>\n There\u2019s only one avenue for realistically holding any of these lawyers accountable. State licensing authorities don\u2019t have to respect contrived immunities or federal pardons. The only concern of professional licensing is fitness to practice the profession. Trump\u2019s lawyers are engaged in professional misconduct at scale and authorities don\u2019t have to let them keep their licenses. <\/p>\n As attorneys, we all have an obligation to the profession and the public to make sure these people never work as lawyers again.<\/p>\n So far, bar authorities have whiffed on their duties. <\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan<\/a>, the insurance lawyer who, until recently, pretended to be the \u201cInterim\u201d U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, kept signing documents after a judge pointed out that she had no legal authority. When a second judge asked why she continued to defy the court\u2019s orders, Halligan\u2019s bosses, AG Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, responded in a filing filled with more vitriol than legal support<\/a>. A professional ethics watchdog flagged Halligan\u2019s behavior for bar authorities in Virginia who brushed it off as none of their business<\/a>. Even the judge who called out Halligan refused to refer her for discipline noting her \u201cinexperience.\u201d <\/p>\n Not for nothing, but the duty of competence makes taking on a legal task without sufficient expertise an ethical violation all of its own! Rather than letting her off the hook, her inexperience should just get added to the heap of potential ethical violations stemming from turning in an indictment without running it by the grand jury and discussing confidential aspects of an ongoing investigation with a reporter in a failed effort to craft a PR narrative. \u201cWhether criminal indictments were obtained through material misrepresentations of fact and done for political purposes falls within the authority of the court to determine and not this office,\u201d Virginia\u2019s last line of defense against professional misconduct wrote at the time.<\/p>\n That is, to put it charitably, complete horseshit. Bar authorities exist precisely because unethical conduct often doesn\u2019t rise to the level of court intervention. The whole point of professional discipline is to address behavior that renders someone unfit to practice law. It\u2019s not about criminality, it\u2019s about fitness to practice. Should the public trust a lawyer who lied to a court in an attempt to ramrod a federal criminal case against someone on the president\u2019s enemies list?<\/p>\n Judge James Boasberg found \u201cprobable cause\u201d to hold the government in criminal contempt after DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign told him deportation flights weren\u2019t taking off when they absolutely were. Ensign later had to admit in another case that the government falsely claimed Guatemalan children\u2019s parents had requested their return when, in fact, \u201cnone of these children\u2019s parents had asked for them to be sent back.\u201d It\u2019s hard to believe this amounts to Ensign\u2019s own incompetence either. Before securing a lifetime appointment to the Third Circuit, Emil Bove allegedly told DOJ lawyers to tell courts \u201cfuck you,\u201d if judges tried to put the brakes on illegal deportations. DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni says he was pressured to make false assertions to courts and was fired for refusing to lie. Text messages show DOJ lawyers reacting to the Ensign\u2019s representations to the court with \u201cOh shit. That was just not true.<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n Model Rule 3.3 could not be clearer: \u201cA lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal.\u201d Model Rule 8.4 prohibits conduct \u201cinvolving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation\u201d and conduct \u201cprejudicial to the administration of justice.\u201d If these allegations are remotely true, these aren\u2019t even particularly close calls. If the behavior is already in spitting distance of a judge putting a lawyer in a jail cell, then it\u2019s more than enough to suspend licenses.<\/p>\n Immediately after ICE agents shot and point blank killed VA nurse Alex Pretti, Pam Bondi wrote Minnesota governor Tim Walz<\/a> representing that the administration would remove its agents \u2014 who are, to date, responsible for two of the three total homicides in the state of Minnesota in 2026 \u2014 if Minnesota agreed to hand over voter information to the federal government in violation of applicable law. Using a prosecutorial office to extort officials to break state laws seems, well, not particularly ethical<\/em>.<\/p>\n This is assembly line professional misconduct. If lying to federal judges about your premediated plan to ignore court orders doesn\u2019t warrant discipline, what does? If using the threat of criminal charges or law enforcement action to exact political concessions doesn\u2019t cross the line, where exactly is the line? There are more than enough rules to cite. Competence, candor, special prosecutorial duties, extrajudicial communications, general misconduct\u2026 spin the wheel and throw a dart and a serious disciplinary counsel should find ample evidence to back an investigation.<\/p>\n Even with a well-greased revolving door between government service and lucrative private sector work, one might think law firms would hesitate to hitch their reputations to lawyers involved in public misconduct. But if 2025 taught us anything, it\u2019s that there will be employers willing to compromise their principles to appease the people backing this administration<\/a>. The only guarantee that these people face any accountability instead of sliding into cushy, lucrative positions disgracing the legal profession from a corner office involves professional discipline. Local bars and disciplinary authorities must treat these cases as what they are: serious, documented violations of core ethical duties.<\/p>\n If state bar authorities lack the courage to enforce professional rules, they should be replaced. The profession belongs to us. Protecting its reputation from those dragging it through the mud is on us, or it\u2019s on no one. If a jurisdiction doesn\u2019t give members a path to replace disciplinary authorities falling down on the job, then launch campaigns to oust whoever does. <\/p>\n The post Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump\u2019s Lawyers<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump administration lawyers have crossed ethical lines that would sink any other practitioner.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve lied to courts<\/a> repeatedly<\/em>. They\u2019ve supported others lying under oath<\/a>. They\u2019re driving career prosecutors out of work but turning the Justice Department into a vector for corrupt dealmaking<\/a>. They tried to launch a criminal probe of a woman they killed<\/a> even though you can\u2019t file criminal charges against a dead person. And they go out in public to cheer on violent threats against judges<\/a>. Politico collected over 2,300 federal court decisions where law enforcement illegally detained people<\/a>\u2026 there are lawyers behind each of these.<\/p>\n Some of these incidents \u2014 in a rational world \u2014 would incur criminal liability. But in a post-Trump v. United States<\/em> world, the executive branch enjoys actual or practical absolute immunity for all manner of lawlessness. And that\u2019s before Trump inevitably pardons the whole legal team on his way out the door. Qualified immunity and a legal system actively hostile to civil liability<\/a> for constitutional violations will protect them from everything else.<\/p>\n There\u2019s only one avenue for realistically holding any of these lawyers accountable. State licensing authorities don\u2019t have to respect contrived immunities or federal pardons. The only concern of professional licensing is fitness to practice the profession. Trump\u2019s lawyers are engaged in professional misconduct at scale and authorities don\u2019t have to let them keep their licenses. <\/p>\n As attorneys, we all have an obligation to the profession and the public to make sure these people never work as lawyers again.<\/p>\n So far, bar authorities have whiffed on their duties. <\/p>\n Lindsey Halligan<\/a>, the insurance lawyer who, until recently, pretended to be the \u201cInterim\u201d U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, kept signing documents after a judge pointed out that she had no legal authority. When a second judge asked why she continued to defy the court\u2019s orders, Halligan\u2019s bosses, AG Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche, responded in a filing filled with more vitriol than legal support<\/a>. A professional ethics watchdog flagged Halligan\u2019s behavior for bar authorities in Virginia who brushed it off as none of their business<\/a>. Even the judge who called out Halligan refused to refer her for discipline noting her \u201cinexperience.\u201d <\/p>\n Not for nothing, but the duty of competence makes taking on a legal task without sufficient expertise an ethical violation all of its own! Rather than letting her off the hook, her inexperience should just get added to the heap of potential ethical violations stemming from turning in an indictment without running it by the grand jury and discussing confidential aspects of an ongoing investigation with a reporter in a failed effort to craft a PR narrative. \u201cWhether criminal indictments were obtained through material misrepresentations of fact and done for political purposes falls within the authority of the court to determine and not this office,\u201d Virginia\u2019s last line of defense against professional misconduct wrote at the time.<\/p>\n That is, to put it charitably, complete horseshit. Bar authorities exist precisely because unethical conduct often doesn\u2019t rise to the level of court intervention. The whole point of professional discipline is to address behavior that renders someone unfit to practice law. It\u2019s not about criminality, it\u2019s about fitness to practice. Should the public trust a lawyer who lied to a court in an attempt to ramrod a federal criminal case against someone on the president\u2019s enemies list?<\/p>\n Judge James Boasberg found \u201cprobable cause\u201d to hold the government in criminal contempt after DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign told him deportation flights weren\u2019t taking off when they absolutely were. Ensign later had to admit in another case that the government falsely claimed Guatemalan children\u2019s parents had requested their return when, in fact, \u201cnone of these children\u2019s parents had asked for them to be sent back.\u201d It\u2019s hard to believe this amounts to Ensign\u2019s own incompetence either. Before securing a lifetime appointment to the Third Circuit, Emil Bove allegedly told DOJ lawyers to tell courts \u201cfuck you,\u201d if judges tried to put the brakes on illegal deportations. DOJ whistleblower Erez Reuveni says he was pressured to make false assertions to courts and was fired for refusing to lie. Text messages show DOJ lawyers reacting to the Ensign\u2019s representations to the court with \u201cOh shit. That was just not true.<\/a>\u201c<\/p>\n Model Rule 3.3 could not be clearer: \u201cA lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of fact or law to a tribunal.\u201d Model Rule 8.4 prohibits conduct \u201cinvolving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation\u201d and conduct \u201cprejudicial to the administration of justice.\u201d If these allegations are remotely true, these aren\u2019t even particularly close calls. If the behavior is already in spitting distance of a judge putting a lawyer in a jail cell, then it\u2019s more than enough to suspend licenses.<\/p>\n Immediately after ICE agents shot and point blank killed VA nurse Alex Pretti, Pam Bondi wrote Minnesota governor Tim Walz<\/a> representing that the administration would remove its agents \u2014 who are, to date, responsible for two of the three total homicides in the state of Minnesota in 2026 \u2014 if Minnesota agreed to hand over voter information to the federal government in violation of applicable law. Using a prosecutorial office to extort officials to break state laws seems, well, not particularly ethical<\/em>.<\/p>\n This is assembly line professional misconduct. If lying to federal judges about your premediated plan to ignore court orders doesn\u2019t warrant discipline, what does? If using the threat of criminal charges or law enforcement action to exact political concessions doesn\u2019t cross the line, where exactly is the line? There are more than enough rules to cite. Competence, candor, special prosecutorial duties, extrajudicial communications, general misconduct\u2026 spin the wheel and throw a dart and a serious disciplinary counsel should find ample evidence to back an investigation.<\/p>\n Even with a well-greased revolving door between government service and lucrative private sector work, one might think law firms would hesitate to hitch their reputations to lawyers involved in public misconduct. But if 2025 taught us anything, it\u2019s that there will be employers willing to compromise their principles to appease the people backing this administration<\/a>. The only guarantee that these people face any accountability instead of sliding into cushy, lucrative positions disgracing the legal profession from a corner office involves professional discipline. Local bars and disciplinary authorities must treat these cases as what they are: serious, documented violations of core ethical duties.<\/p>\n If state bar authorities lack the courage to enforce professional rules, they should be replaced. The profession belongs to us. Protecting its reputation from those dragging it through the mud is on us, or it\u2019s on no one. If a jurisdiction doesn\u2019t give members a path to replace disciplinary authorities falling down on the job, then launch campaigns to oust whoever does. <\/p>\n The post Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump\u2019s Lawyers<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trump administration lawyers have crossed ethical lines that would sink any other practitioner. They\u2019ve lied to courts repeatedly. They\u2019ve supported others lying under oath. They\u2019re driving career prosecutors out of work but turning the Justice Department into a vector for corrupt dealmaking. They tried to launch a criminal probe of a woman they killed even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n
\nJoe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n