EXCLUSIVE — A District of Columbia Bar official who quietly withdrew from an ethics investigation into President Donald Trump’s pardon attorney Ed Martin last month is now facing a new disciplinary complaint of his own.
The Center to Advance Security in America, a conservative watchdog group, filed a complaint against D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel senior assistant attorney Jack Metzler, arguing that a series of public statements he made on X and Bluesky over the course of several years demonstrated a political bias that called into question his ability to participate fairly in disciplinary proceedings involving Martin, the former interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Fitzpatrick said CASA filed the complaint out of concern that Metzler’s history of partisan social media activity compromised the appearance of neutrality required in the disciplinary investigation against Martin, which centers on his correspondence with Georgetown University Law Center last year regarding its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
“[We] filed a bar complaint against Jack Metzler due to his outrageous statements related to his partisan political beliefs, which show potential bias and inability to act as a neutral arbiter of the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct,” Fitzpatrick said.
According to CASA’s complaint against Metzler, Martin was carrying out responsibilities consistent with the Trump administration’s policy agenda and Executive Order 14173, which directed federal agencies to eliminate unlawful race-based discrimination and ensure federal funds were not supporting discriminatory practices.
The complaint comes in response to Metzler’s brief involvement in the disciplinary inquiry opened into Martin in March. It was filed by retired Judge Phillip Argento and accused Martin of First and Fifth Amendment violations.
In early 2025, Martin was targeted by activist organizations and Democrats after he sent letters to Georgetown University in February while serving as interim U.S. attorney. The letter served as a check on the college to understand whether its diversity, equity, and inclusion practices complied with federal law, while warning that any continued violations could affect future DOJ hiring and internship decisions.
Recent weeks have brought a dramatic turn in the Martin investigation. After the Justice Department filed suit against the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel and several other officials on May 13, Metzler withdrew from the Martin investigation two days later, leaving disciplinary counsel Hamilton P. Fox III to oversee the matter going forward.
— Stanley E. Woodward, Jr. (@ASGWoodward) May 17, 2026
Metzler’s abrupt withdrawal from the Martin case also coincided with eye-raising screenshots of his social media posts that had begun circulating online.
On the same day as the DOJ filed its lawsuit, Heritage Foundation’s senior legal fellow Zack Smith exposed Metzler’s posts that included criticism of Trump, conservative Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, and FBI Director Kash Patel.
In one 2023 post, Metzler wrote, “How do you solve a problem like Alito?” In another, he described it as “embarrassing for Christianity” that Alito had been invited to speak at a Catholic university.
Other posts from Metzler mocked Trump during the Wagner Group uprising in Russia and included reposts encouraging opponents of the administration to use “whatever power we have” to resist Trump, even if “it might land us in prison.”
For Trump allies, the DOJ’s recent lawsuit is a long-awaited effort to stop what they view as a pattern of weaponizing state and local bar disciplinary proceedings against Trump-aligned lawyers.
Disciplinary matters that have particularly drawn the ire of the administration involve both the ongoing case of Martin and also former DOJ ranking official Jeffrey Clark, who is appealing a recommended disbarment last July over his previous Trump administration work, which involved the drafting of a letter that sought to investigate any irregularities during the 2020 election.
For his part, Martin has voiced his aggravations with the disciplinary counsel in recent days, posting on X last week that “The Bar Associations are ending themselves.”
“Soon, they will be like the Guilds of Florence,” he added, referencing Renaissance-era trade guilds in Italy that ultimately lost their political power and were folded.
The complaint against Metzler also marks the second filing in two days from CASA that is seeking disciplinary investigations into lawyers with alleged partisan animus involved in Trump-related affairs.
On Tuesday, CASA filed a separate complaint in Pennsylvania seeking disciplinary scrutiny of former federal prosecutor Carmen Lineberger, who was indicted in May on allegations that she improperly retained records connected to former special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents investigation of Trump.
DC BAR LAWYER WITHDRAWS FROM ED MARTIN DISCIPLINARY CASE AFTER PARTISAN POSTS SURFACE
CASA argued that Lineberger’s alleged handling of government records and efforts to disguise politically explosive files as cake recipe documents raised questions about honesty and professional conduct, warranting review by Pennsylvania Bar authorities.
Neither Metzler nor the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel responded to requests for comment.