President Donald Trump is expected to tap Jeffrey Clark as the White House’s regulation czar in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
As associate administrator of OIRA, Clark would work under the recently confirmed Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought to ensure federal agencies not only comply with Trump’s executive orders but also prioritize the Republican’s agenda when crafting agency rules.
Like his role as senior adviser to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s chief legal officer, which was reported last week, Clark’s OIRA position will not require confirmation by the Senate. The administration is relying on his extensive experience as an appellate litigator and administrative law expert for an international law firm as well as his 2012 to 2015 stint as an elected member of the Governing Council of the American Bar Association’s Administrative Law Section to ensure he is equipped to take on the regulatory fights that await him.
The OIRA appointment is a victory for Clark, who spent the last three years fighting an uphill battle against Democrats’ expansive and ongoing lawfare schemes for his role in the first Trump administration’s Department of Justice.
Clark, who served between 2018 and 2021 as assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division and was named acting head of the Civil Division in 2020, specifically came under fire for drafting a letter to Georgia officials noting the Justice Department “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the [2020] election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia.”
As Federalist Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland noted in her coverage of the letter, “drafting a legal opinion letter is not a crime.” Even if it was, the DOJ official did not ultimately send the letter.
Yet, Clark was still charged by the Washington, D.C. Bar in July 2022 with “attempted … conduct involving dishonesty” and “attempted … conduct that would seriously interfere with the administration of justice.” He was also named as one of the 19 “co-conspirator” targets in Democrats’ wide-ranging election indictment in Georgia and even had his house raided by the FBI.
As The Federalist has previously reported, Clark’s attempts to defend himself against the allegations were stonewalled by the Biden administration but were not completely worthless. Last February, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that he did not have to comply with a subpoena from the D.C. Bar’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel after Clark argued it would have violated his executive, law enforcement, deliberative process, and attorney-client privileges, as well as deprive him of his Fifth Amendment rights.
Yet, the quest to indefinitely deprive Clark of his ability to practice licensed law simply because he prioritized election integrity under Trump continues and is expected to come to a head when the D.C. Bar issues its final decision.
Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire, Fox News, and RealClearPolitics. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on X @jordanboydtx.
