Roughly 70 law professors, attorneys and justices filed an ethics complaint against Attorney General Pam Bondi with the Florida Bar on Thursday, accusing her of “serious professional misconduct” and political bias in favor of President Donald Trump.
The complaint alleges that the former Florida attorney general has worked to weaponize the Department of Justice by threatening department lawyers with discipline or termination if they fail “to zealously pursue the President’s political objectives.”
DOJ lawyers say Bondi and her staff have pressured them into “violating their ethical obligations” and doing things they are “ethically forbidden from doing.” This has resulted in “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice,” states the complaint, obtained by HuffPost and first reported by the Miami Herald.
Francisco Digon-Greer, counsel for the Florida Bar, dismissed the complaint in a letter on Friday, saying the institution does not “investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.”
“Such proceedings by The Florida Bar, as an arm of the Florida Supreme Court, could encroach on the authority of the federal government concerning these officials and the exercise of their duties,” his letter read.
Dozens of legal experts, including retired Florida Supreme Court justices Barbara J. Pariente and Peggy A. Quince, had signed the complaint, which demanded an investigation and sanctions against Bondi.
It was the third complaint the group has filed against Bondi, and the third denied due to her current employment status.
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Possibly anticipating another rejection, the complaint’s authors said Thursday that states are responsible for overseeing who can practice law in their respective jurisdictions and disciplining them.
“The Rules not only require that lawyers who are public officials are accountable for their ethical conduct, but they specifically declare that lawyers who are public officials have a higher duty than other lawyers to maintain ethical standards,” they argued, citing the Florida Bar’s rules of professional conduct. “Nowhere in the Rules or Comments is there an exemption for lawyers who are federal public officials.”
The complaint cites “three glaring examples” as evidence of Bondi’s alleged misconduct, including the April firing of immigration lawyer Erez Reuveni. Reuveni was terminated after telling a judge that the government’s deportation of migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was made in “error.” He was ousted, the complaint states, “for telling the truth.”
It also cites the “forced resignation” of federal prosecutor Denise Cheung in February after she declined Trump officials’ request to open a criminal investigation into a government contractor “because there was insufficient predication.” The third example is the DOJ’s efforts to dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ criminal indictment without prejudice. Nearly a dozen lawyers who objected to the DOJ’s proposal, calling it an improper “quid pro quo,” were either forced to resign or resigned after being placed on administrative leave, the complaint states.
A DOJ official dismissed the complaint as meritless to HuffPost.
“The Florida Bar has twice rejected performative attempts by these out-of-state lawyers to weaponize the bar complaint process against AG Bondi,” DOJ chief of staff Chad Mizelle said in a statement. “This third vexatious attempt will fail to do anything other than prove that the signatories have less intelligence — and independent thoughts — than sheep.”
Bondi, a staunch Trump loyalist, served as a special adviser to the president during his first impeachment and supported his efforts to deny his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. During her confirmation hearing in January, she refused to acknowledge his defeat.
Since her appointment as the nation’s top attorney, Bondi has sided with Trump on every controversial and constitutionally questionable order and has publicly vowed to “root out” anyone within the DOJ and FBI “who despise Donald Trump.”
Bondi presented herself as an independent prosecutor during her Jan. 15 Senate confirmation hearing, saying that “politics will not play a part” in deciding whom to investigate and that she would exercise independent judgment.
“Politics has to be taken out of this system,” she said. “This department has been weaponized for years and years and years, and it has to stop.”
Trump on Wednesday ordered Bondi and other federal officials to investigate the Biden administration and his predecessor’s health while in office.