Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi is as soon as once more underneath the microscope—this time again in Florida, the place she’s been accused of turning the Justice Division right into a instrument for political revenge.
The ethics grievance, first reported by the Miami Herald, was filed Thursday by a virtually 70-person coalition of attorneys, regulation professors, and former Florida Supreme Court docket justices, together with Barbara Pariente, James Perry, and Peggy Quince. They accuse Bondi of “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice.”
In response to the submitting, Bondi violated Florida Bar guidelines through the use of her workplace to serve President Donald Trump’s political objectives, pressuring DOJ attorneys to “violate their ethical obligations under 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 position 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 palms 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 as a consequence of a bureaucratic error.
DOJ officers dismissed the grievance outright, with DOJ chief of workers Chad Mizelle calling it the third try by “out-of-state lawyers to weaponize the bar complaint process.”
“This third vexatious attempt will fail to do anything other than prove that the signatories have less intelligence—and independent thoughts—than sheep,” he mentioned.
Technically, the Florida Bar rejected two earlier complaints, claiming that it doesn’t examine federal officers appointed underneath the Structure whereas they’re in workplace. However the coalition isn’t shopping for that.
“The Florida Bar’s dismissal is unsupported by history or precedent,” they wrote within the grievance, arguing that no rule shields a Florida-licensed lawyer from accountability simply because they’re in federal workplace.
Bondi’s critics have lengthy accused her of placing Trump forward of the regulation. 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 contemporary scrutiny on herself. ProPublica reported that Bondi dumped someplace between $1 million and $5 million value 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 battle. The DOJ, as soon as recognized 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 could be reshaping it in Trump’s picture. Throughout her January affirmation listening to, she informed senators that “the partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone.”
“America will 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 underneath Bondi, the DOJ now not serves the regulation—it serves Trump.
