A federal appeals court has unanimously rejected a plea by former President Donald Trump’s top environmental lawyer to quash disbarment proceedings against him for attempting to undermine the results of the 2020 election.
The unsigned, unpublished decision issued Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit declined to bump Jeffrey Bossert Clark’s ethics case to federal court — a move that would delay the proceedings and potentially bolster his defense.
Clark had asked the D.C. Circuit to remove three matters against him to federal court: two subpoenas and a D.C. Bar disciplinary hearing. The D.C. Circuit found that the subpoenas are now moot, and that Clark’s request on the disciplinary hearing had come too late.
During arguments, a panel of three D.C. Circuit judges had appeared skeptical that the federal courts were equipped to handle Clark’s case, which is already in progress before the D.C. Court of Appeals, a venue that has mechanisms to handle such matters.