Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi is as soon as once more beneath the microscope—this time again in Florida, the place she’s been accused of turning the Justice Division right into a software for political revenge.
The ethics grievance, first reported by the Miami Herald, was filed Thursday by an almost 70-person coalition of attorneys, legislation professors, and former Florida Supreme Court docket justices, together with Barbara Pariente, James Perry, and Peggy Quince. They accuse Bondi of “critical skilled misconduct that threatens the rule of legislation and the administration of justice.”
In accordance with the submitting, Bondi violated Florida Bar guidelines through the use of her workplace to serve President Donald Trump’s political targets, pressuring DOJ legal professionals to “violate their moral obligations beneath the guise of ‘zealous advocacy.’”
The grievance additionally says that she threatened to self-discipline—or outright fireplace—any lawyer who didn’t comply, claiming that Bondi performed a central function in a wave of high-level DOJ resignations and terminations.
Amongst them was the ousting of veteran prosecutor Denise Cheung, who resigned after refusing to analyze a Biden-era contract with out proof. Her resignation letter ended up within the fingers of Trump ally Ed Martin. One other was Erez Reuveni, a seasoned immigration lawyer who was reportedly let go after objecting to the imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an asylum seeker who was wrongly deported and jailed in El Salvador because of a bureaucratic error.
DOJ officers dismissed the grievance outright, with DOJ chief of employees Chad Mizelle calling it the third try by “out-of-state legal professionals to weaponize the bar grievance course of.”
“This third vexatious try will fail to do something aside from show that the signatories have much less intelligence—and unbiased ideas—than sheep,” he stated.
Technically, the Florida Bar rejected two earlier complaints, claiming that it doesn’t examine federal officers appointed beneath the Structure whereas they’re in workplace. However the coalition isn’t shopping for that.
“The Florida Bar’s dismissal is unsupported by historical past or precedent,” they wrote within the grievance, arguing that no rule shields a Florida-licensed legal professional from accountability simply because they’re in federal workplace.
Bondi’s critics have lengthy accused her of placing Trump forward of the legislation. Since being confirmed, she’s spent extra time on Fox Information than within the DOJ constructing and has made headlines for focusing on Trump’s perceived enemies—from Democratic officers and protestors to complete universities.
She’s additionally introduced recent scrutiny on herself. ProPublica reported that Bondi dumped someplace between $1 million and $5 million price of Trump Media shares on April 2—the identical day that Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff stunt despatched the markets into chaos.
Bondi’s defenders say she’s merely doing her job. However that job now consists of slashing anti-corruption efforts, supercharging immigration crackdowns, and turning the civil rights division right into a entrance within the GOP’s tradition struggle. The DOJ, as soon as identified for experience and independence, is now nothing greater than a platform for Trump’s private agenda.
And it’s not simply that Bondi broke her promise to maintain politics out of the DOJ—it’s that she may be reshaping it in Trump’s picture. Throughout her January affirmation listening to, she instructed senators that “the partisanship, the weaponization, will probably be gone.”
“America could have one tier of justice for all,” she claimed.
Since then, although, it looks like there’s one tier for Trump and one other for everybody else.
Whether or not this ethics grievance sticks stays to be seen. A spokesperson for the Florida Bar confirmed receipt of the grievance to the Miami Herald however declined to remark additional, citing bar guidelines.
Nonetheless, the grievance underscores a deeper concern: that beneath Bondi, the DOJ now not serves the legislation—it serves Trump.
