Headline story from FL: The Florida Bar rejects complaint accusing Bondi of ‘misconduct’ as U.S. AG (edited & formatted to fit the blog).
The complaint said her actions “threaten the rule of law and the administration of justice.” Bondi appeared before the Senate Committee for her confirmation hearing on January 15, 2025.
A liberal to moderate-leaning coalition of 70 law professors, attorneys, and former FL Supreme Court justices is attacking Bondi’s record as U.S. AG in an ethics complaint filed with the Florida Bar.
During her Senate confirmation hearing she tiptoed around whether she would stand up to Trump’s pressure on the DOJ promising only in a broad sense that “...politics has to be taken out of this system.”
Since her confirmation, Bondi has earned the praise of conservative Republicans for loyally following Trump’s agenda while drawing the wrath of critics on the Democratic spectrum who say she has politicized the DOJ on issues ranging from illegal immigration to public corruption.
Now, a liberal- and moderate-leaning coalition of about 70 law professors, attorneys, and former FL Supreme Court justices is attacking her record in an ethics complaint filed Thursday with the Florida Bar. They accuse Bondi of violating her ethical
duties as U.S. attorney general, saying: “She has committed serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice.”
For example, the complaint claims Bondi “...sought to compel DOJ lawyers to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of zealous advocacy, and she espoused that in a February 5, 2025 memo to all agency employees on her first day in office.”
The complaint further says Bondi threatened agency lawyers with “... discipline or termination if they failed to zealously pursue the President’s political objectives,” alleging her conduct violates Florida Bar rules and long-standing norms of the DOJ.
The coalition, which includes retired Florida Supreme Court Justices Barbara J. Pariente and Peggy A. Quince, noted that the Florida Bar rejected two other recent ethics complaints against Bondi, saying: “It does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.”
Now the FL Bar rejected the latest complaint in a letter sent to the coalition, citing the same issue.
Noteworthy: The coalition did not immediately respond to the Florida Bar decision. But when noting the Bar’s dismissal of the previous two Bondi complaints, the coalition argued that none of the Bar’s rules exempt a Florida-licensed lawyer from scrutiny if they are accused of abusing their position as a federal public official.
DOJ officials on Thursday condemned the latest Florida Bar complaint. “Since her first day on the job, Bondi has made clear that she plans to use the Department of Justice for political pursuits, and she has done just that,” said Norm Eisen, executive chairperson of the Democracy Defenders Fund, a nonprofit legal advocacy group in Washington, D.C. Eisen and who was the former ambassador to the Czech Republic under President Obama.
The firings by Trump’s Justice Department conjured up Richard Nixon’s controversial move to have special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired for refusing to withdraw a subpoena for the Nixon White House tapes during Watergate. In what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” Nixon ordered then AG Elliot Richardson to fire
Cox, but Richardson refused and he too resigned.
Then, Nixon ordered the Deputy AG William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox. He also refused and resigned. Nixon finally prevailed when he ordered the DOJ solicitor general Robert Bork to fire Cox — a move that also backfired on Nixon and ultimately led to his resignation as president in 1974. In the aftermath, it was generally understood there would be “no contact” between the president and the AG regarding investigations and
prosecutions. But, now after more than 50 years, that Justice Department’s wall of independence from the White House was officially torn down in July 2024. In an historic opinion, the now 6-3 U.S. Conservative Supreme Court ruled that Trump was generally immune for criminal liability and conduct for his official acts while in office — including his attempts to use the DOJ to obstruct the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
AG Bondi pledged that her Justice Department would not be weaponized. During her Senate confirmation hearing in mid-January, Bondi said that she would keep politics out of the Justice Department — despite refusing to say that Trump lost the 2020 election and previously
saying: “Prosecutors will be prosecuted. The the partisanship, the weaponization, will be gone.” Bondi testified that while repeatedly saying the Justice Department had been misused under Biden's administration, and “America will have one tier of justice for all.”
In her February 5 “Zealous Advocacy” memo to all Justice Department employees, Bondi advised prosecutors that their responsibilities “included not only aggressively enforcing criminal and civil laws enacted by Congress and to vigorously defend
presidential policies and actions against legal challenges on behalf of the United States.”
But then Bondi also said: “The discretion afforded Department attorneys entrusted with those responsibilities does not include latitude to substitute personal political views or judgments for those that prevailed in the election.”
She concluded by warning that anyone who
“refuses to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Administration ... or impedes the Department’s mission will be subject to discipline and potentially termination.”
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My 2 Cents: I can't stop laughing when I recall her Senate confirmation vs. her actions today.
So, here we are today with another Trump liar as AG of the United States lying and acting the exact opposite that she swore under oath to get AG job.
Time will tell how things go from here, but I fear and predict it will go more DOWNHILL more than ever. We shall see - so stay tuned as I'm sure you will, as will I.
Thanks for stopping.
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