Idaho AG Labrador under ethics investigation by Idaho State Bar after complaint

By Kyle Pfannenstiel
Idaho Capital Sun

The Idaho State Bar is conducting an ethics investigation into Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, following a complaint alleging an “adversarial relationship” with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.

Former-Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Dave Jeppesen, who retired in December, filed the complaint in June 2023. Jeppesen’s complaint alleges Labrador’s office has effectively denied the state health department — Idaho’s largest government agency — with adequate legal representation following legal conflicts and investigations into the agency, which the attorney general must legally represent.

Idaho AG Raúl Labrador. Courtesy photo.

The conflicts have strained the state health department’s operations and created “a hostile situation where trust and confidence has been destroyed,” the former agency director’s complaint alleges.

The Idaho Statesman first reported on the investigation.

In a statement to the Idaho Capital Sun, Labrador’s office said it was cooperating with the Idaho State Bar, which can discipline attorneys. But Idaho Office of the Attorney General spokesperson Dan Estes called the complaint “baseless,” and said Labrador “is confident the complaint will be dismissed in due time.”

State Bar investigates former AG staffer, now working for Alliance Defending Freedom

In a July 22 letter to Labrador, the Idaho State Bar asked the state’s top attorney to reply to Jeppesen’s allegations. 

In a separate July 22 letter, the bar asked former-Idaho Office of the Attorney General Civil and Constitutional Defense Division Chief Lincoln Davis Wilson to respond to allegations Jeppesen made in a separate complaint. 

Wilson is now an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm that has an agreement to freely represent Idaho in litigation.

“The attorney general is accustomed to meritless attacks in the media. But it is unfortunate that anyone is now attempting to also sully the character of the excellent attorneys who work or have worked for the office,” Estes said in a statement.

Jeppesen shared his complaints and the Idaho State Bar’s recent letters with the Sun, upon the Sun’s request. Jeppesen also shared the records with the Statesman. 

Labrador’s office critiqued Jeppesen for sharing the documents with the media. 

“The Bar’s grievance process is confidential in order to protect attorneys from meritless claims being aired out in public,” Estes said in a statement. “The leaking of this frivolous and baseless complaint to the media is an attempt to thwart a fair and objective process, and is proof that it was intended as a political hit. The fact that Mr. Jeppesen disrespect[s] the confidential process says more about his character and motives than anything in the complaint itself.“

Jeppesen did not agree to an interview. “Everything I had to say is contained in my complaint,” he told the Sun.

Idaho State Bar Counsel Joe Pirtle told the Sun that he couldn’t confirm whether there are investigations into Labrador and Wilson.

But, speaking generally about grievance investigations, he said in an interview that the Idaho State Bar takes an average of 10 to 11 months to make determinations. But he said some cases may take longer to resolve.

Idaho State Bar investigations are confidential by rule, he said. Investigations only become public if the Bar files a formal charge complaint against an attorney — in which the Bar would seek public sanctions for alleged misconduct, such as public reprimands or disbarment.

Since becoming Idaho AG over a year ago, Labrador has clashed with state agencies

Labrador, by Idaho law, is required to represent the state health department and other state agencies. But since the former congressman took over as the state’s top attorney in January 2023, he has engaged in high-profile legal clashes with some of the state’s largest agencies — including the state health department and the State Board of Education.

Jeppesen’s complaint alleges that Labrador’s actions show that he “does not view [the Department of Health and Welfare] as his client,” and that he has taken an “adversarial position against” the state health department and created “an unworkable conflict.” 

That has left the state health department without “adequate legal representation,” the complaint alleges, and fueled concerns that “attorney-client privileged information will not be kept confidential, or worse, will be used against [the agency] and its employees.”

Estes said Jeppesen “and some legal commentators” misunderstand two key things: the attorney general “does not represent” agency directors “in their personal capacity,” and professional conduct rules let government lawyers “represent multiple parties in cases where it would not be allowed in private practice.”

Jeppesen wrote that the “untenable situation” led to the resignation or forced ouster of two lead deputy attorneys general, the attorney general’s health division chief and three other deputy attorneys general.

The former health department director wrote to the Bar that he could provide “many, many specific examples” of conflict spurred by the “adversarial relationship.” 

Much of Jeppesen’s complaint centered on Labrador’s handling of an investigation into the health department’s alleged mishandling of child care grants, which state auditors flagged issues in last year.

How Labrador’s grants investigation actions affected Department of Health and Welfare

In March 2023, top Idaho health officials filed two lawsuits, seeking to block civil subpoenas Labrador served on the officials for sweeping information related to the Idaho Attorney General’s Office investigation into $72 million of child care grants.

When Labrador issued those subpoenas, formally called civil investigative demands, he “created an additional unworkable conflict,” Jeppesen wrote in his complaint.

The attorney general didn’t engage state health department staff or Jeppesen to share concerns about the grant’s handling, Jeppesen wrote.

In legal guidance, a now-fired former Idaho deputy attorney general had found the agency’s grant fund distribution was legally sound. But in March 2023, the Attorney General’s Office withdrew those opinions, saying that they were legally inaccurate. 

Labrador has insinuated the opinions “were created under suspicious and nefarious circumstances in an attempt to discredit his client, “Jeppesen wrote.

The legal demands “not only creates an unworkable conflict,” Jeppesen wrote, “but also creates an adversarial relationship that has destroyed” his and the state health department’s “trust and confidence that AG Labrador will advocate for [the state health department’s] best interest going forward.”

Since the Office of the Attorney General investigated the Department of Health and Welfare’s grants handling even after the previous legal guidance, it “opens up the possibility that at any given time legal advice or opinions that had been given to [the Department of Health and Welfare] can be withdrawn or worse, attorney client privileged information could be used against the department or its employees by the AG in the future.”

Labrador had “firewalled” his office’s attorneys for the health department, the complaint states. 

That left the health department without legal guidance on the information demands, Jeppesen wrote, leaving officials to hire private attorneys — who represented them in their lawsuit against the demands. 

“Effectively, AG Labrador admitted that there was a conflict and further went on to deny [the state health department] the legal resources necessary to manage the assault that AG Labrador perpetrated on his own client,” Jeppesen wrote.

This story was produced by Boise-based nonprofit news outlet the Idaho Capital Sun, which is part of the States Newsroom nationwide reporting project. For more information, visit idahocapitalsun.com.