Source: The Hill
by Mark Recktenwald
“The ethical standards for licensed attorneys, including those employed by the DOJ, are imposed and enforced by the states. They are an independent check on the temptation to mislead the court, disregard its orders, or engage in other unethical conduct. Rather than requiring more accountability of its attorneys, the department is proposing to eviscerate the controls that do exist, by making itself the judge of whether misconduct has occurred. This is why alarm bells should be sounded by the Department of Justice’s recent decision to issue a proposed rule which would turn the system on its head. The draft rule would effectively empower the department to indefinitely interrupt state disciplinary investigations by directing an internal ‘review’ of allegations of misconduct against its own attorneys.” (03/30/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/5806968-federal-courts-trump-doj-ethics/