Florida Bar Rejects Latest Attack on Pam Bondi by State Lawyers as Justice Department Denounces ‘Sheep’ Who Accused AG of ‘Serious Misconduct’

The Florida Bar Association has rejected the latest complaint from left-leaning Florida lawyers and judges seeking professional sanctions against Attorney General Bondi over her professional conduct as the country’s top legal officer. The bard complaint — the third such complaint in recent months — is ratcheting up tensions between America’s top lawyer and the liberal legal establishment now at war with the Trump Administration.The accusation that Ms. Bondi has committed “serious professional misconduct” came in an ethics complaint signed by some 70 law professors, lawyers, and Florida supreme court justices. Between 2011 and 2019 Ms. Bondi, a Tampa native, served as Florida’s 37th, and first female, attorney general. The complaint, which addressed her work as America’s attorney general, asked the state bar to “investigate the allegations made here and to take appropriate action.”“Appropriate action” would likely have meant an investigation and, if the complainants had their way, disbarment for Ms. Bondi, which would have prevented her from practicing law in Florida, where she’s an active member of the bar. The attorney general, though, does not need to be a member of any bar, or even a lawyer.The complaint from the Florida lawyers contended that Ms. Bondi’s behavior as America’s attorney general “threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice.” Ms. Bondi’s Sunshine State critics argued that she has worked to “compel Department of Justice lawyers to violate their ethical obligations” as she strives “to zealously pursue the President’s political objectives.” The attorney general, like every executive branch officer, ultimately reports to the president. Before rejecting this new complaint on Friday morning, the Florida bar had already rejected two previous complaints lodged against Ms. Bondi, ruling that the bar “does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.” Ms. Bondi, who, like all officers, is sworn to the parchment, was nominated by Mr. Trump and confirmed by the Senate. This latest complaint, though, argues that the “Florida Bar’s dismissal is unsupported by history or precedent,” and that holding federal office does not offer immunity against state disciplinary proceedings.The case, so to speak, against Ms. Bondi revolves around the contention that she worked along with deputies such as Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, the latter of whom has been nominated by Mr. Trump to the Third United States Appeals Circuit, to “coerce and intimidate lawyers … into violating their ethical obligations.” The complaint cites Mr. Bondi’s directive to dismiss the criminal bribery case against Mayor Adams. The acting United States attorney in that case, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than move to dismiss the case. She unsuccessfully sought a meeting with Ms. Bondi. Ms. Sassoon wrote to Mr. Bove that “Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”The complaint also alleged that Ms. Bondi, who cut her teeth prosecuting crime at Tampa, unethically ordered the firing of a DOJ lawyer, Erez Reuveni. Mr. Reuveni was initially tapped to lead the deportation proceedings of a Salvadorean national, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Mr. Reuveni represented that it was America’s position that Mr. Abrego Garcia “should not have been sent to El Salvador.”The DOJ, though, soon reversed that position and has demurred from bringing him back to America, even as the Supreme Court ordered — following the trial judge — that Washington was obligated to “facilitate” his return. The government could soon face contempt proceedings in the case. Ms. Bondi tells Fox News that “America is safer” because Mr. Abrego Garcia is gone. In a memorandum promulgated on February 5, Ms. Bondi declared that the responsibilities of DOJ lawyers include “vigorously defending presidential policies and actions against legal challenges … 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.” Ms. Bondi is not the only prominent prosecutor who has faced charges of running afoul of ethical regulations. A conservative group, America First Legal, founded by a senior adviser to Mr. Trump, Stephen Miller, has brought a complaint against Attorney General Letitia James in New York. Mayor Giuliani has been stripped of his ability to practice law in the Empire State because of his work for Mr. Trump in the aftermath of the 2020 election. Ms. Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, decried what he called “performative attempts … to weaponize the bar complaint process against AG Bondi. This third vexatious attempt will fail to do anything other than prove that the signatories have less intelligence — and independent thoughts — than sheep.”

Florida Bar Rejects Latest Attack on Pam Bondi by State Lawyers as Justice Department Denounces ‘Sheep’ Who Accused AG of ‘Serious Misconduct’

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