FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 6, 2025

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

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Campaign for Accountability (CfA), a non-profit watchdog group, asked the Attorney Grievance Committee of the Third Judicial Department of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York to investigate John A. Sarcone III, a New York-licensed attorney and “Special Attorney to the United States Attorney General,” for potential violations of the New York Rules of Professional Conduct (Rules).

Read CfA’s complaint.

The complaint highlights how Mr. Sarcone’s behavior across a series of events appears to violate myriad Rules by which all New York lawyers must abide. These include apparently false claims that Mr. Sarcone made about the severity of an incident that resulted in a man’s arrest under improperly heightened charges, as well as apparently deceptive statements Mr. Sarcone made about the nature of his residence, and subsequent retaliation he took against the media for reporting on these facts.

CfA Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said, “Over the last four months since he was sworn in as Interim U.S. Attorney, Mr. Sarcone has behaved erratically and potentially illegally. His actions raise questions not only about his suitability for the current office in which he serves, but about his fitness as a lawyer, period.”

Through his actions, Mr. Sarcone may have violated:

• Rule 3.6 (prohibiting improper extrajudicial statements likely to prejudice proceedings);
• Rule 3.8(a) (prohibiting prosecutors from instituting charges not supported by probable cause);
• And Rules 8.4(b) (prohibiting illegal conduct that adversely reflects on honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness); 8.4(c) (prohibiting “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation”); 8.4 (d) (prohibiting conduct “prejudicial to the administration of justice”), and 8.4(h) (prohibiting conduct “that adversely reflects on the lawyer’s fitness as a lawyer”).

In addition to apparently violating his obligations under the Rules, Sarcone swore when he became a New York Bar member to “support the Constitution of the United States” and to “faithfully discharge the duties of the office of attorney and counselor at law.” Mr. Sarcone appears to have violated that oath. More generally, Mr. Sarcone’s actions appear to constitute what could be an abuse of power and serve to undermine the integrity of the DOJ and erode public confidence in the legal profession and the fair administration of justice.

Ms. Kuppersmith continued, “The Committee has a duty to conduct a thorough investigation into these allegations and impose appropriate disciplinary measures. Its failure to do so may result not only in an erosion of public trust amongst New Yorkers, but across the legal system at large.”

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.