FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 16, 2026

Contact: Michael Clauw, mclauw@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) filed a bar complaint asking the District of Columbia Office of Disciplinary Counsel to investigate Stanley E. Woodward, Jr., Associate Attorney General of the United States and the third-ranking official at the Department of Justice. By serving as the sole government signatory to a settlement that creates a $1.776 billion fund to compensate the same January 6 defendants and Trump associates he previously represented as a private defense attorney, Mr. Woodward appears to have possibly violated multiple District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct.

Read CfA’s complaint.

CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said, “For years, Stanley Woodward made his name as the defense lawyer for President Trump’s associates and the rioters who stormed the Capitol, with his fees footed by Trump-aligned PACs. Now his signature alone has committed nearly $1.8 billion in taxpayer money to a fund that pays off those very same clients. The D.C. Bar should investigate this apparent conflict.”

On May 18, 2026, Mr. Woodward executed, as the only signatory for the government, a settlement in Trump v. IRS that established the “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The $1.776 billion fund, payable from the federal Judgment Fund, is empowered to pay “monetary relief” to anyone the President deems a victim of “Lawfare and Weaponization,” with eligibility factors that expressly include time spent in federal prison. Its five members are appointed and removable at will by the President, and its decisions are subject to no judicial review.

Immediately before entering government, Mr. Woodward was the private defense lawyer for a roster of January 6 defendants and Trump associates whose interests are directly implicated by the settlement, and each of whom is now a potential claimant to the fund he created. His former clients include Walt Nauta and Yuscil Taveras in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case; FBI Director Kash Patel; Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, who resisted January 6 Committee subpoenas; Oath Keeper Kelly Meggs and Connie Meggs; and Capitol riot defendants Ryan Samsel and Federico Klein. His fees were paid by political action committees associated with President Trump, including the Save America PAC and the Patriots Legal Defense Fund.

CfA’s complaint alleges that, through his conduct, Mr. Woodward may have violated numerous Rules of Professional Conduct, including: Rule 1.11 (successive government and private employment); Rule 1.7 (concurrent conflicts of interest); Rule 1.8(f) (accepting compensation for a representation from a third party); Rule 8.4(d) (conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice); and Rule 8.4(c) (conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation).

The complaint also details how the settlement was signed on the very day President Trump dismissed Trump v. IRS, ending the case just before a federal judge could examine whether the lawsuit was a collusive, non-adversarial proceeding, and depriving the court of any opportunity to scrutinize a settlement it was never shown. Thirty-five former judges have since asked the court to reopen the matter to investigate whether it was the victim of a fraud.

Separately, the complaint asks the Bar to examine Mr. Woodward’s simultaneous representation of Mr. Nauta and Mr. Taveras, two clients in the same criminal case whose interests became directly adverse, even as his fees were paid by a PAC controlled by President Trump.

Ms. Kuppersmith continued: “A Senate-confirmed title is not a hall pass allowing Mr. Woodward to shrug off the ethics rules other lawyers are obliged to follow. CfA is asking the D.C. Bar to investigate and to make clear that government lawyers answer to the public, not to the clients they left behind.”

Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.