Pam Bondi faces career-ending probe as Trump strips her of ethics shield
Fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi could be stripped of her law license after a retired judge and 120 Florida legal experts filed a sweeping ethics complaint against her with the Florida Bar.The complaint was brought by Peggy Quince, a retired chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court, and carries the signatures of more than 120 judges, law professors, and attorneys. It is their second attempt; the Bar turned away an earlier filing last June on the grounds that it doesn't investigate sitting federal appointees. But President Donald Trump's dismissal of Bondi in April means that obstacle is no longer in the way."No one lawyer is above the law," Quince said in a statement.The coalition behind the complaint — which includes Lawyers Defending American Democracy, the Democracy Defenders Fund, and Lawyers for the Rule of Law — alleges Bondi pressured DOJ attorneys to bend their ethical obligations or face termination.Much of the filing focuses on Bondi's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, accusing her of misleading the public about a supposed "client list" she claimed was on her desk, then overseeing a document release so poorly managed that unredacted names, birth dates, and photos of victims were exposed.Attorneys for survivors called one January release "the single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history." Virginia Canter, chief counsel at the Democracy Defenders Fund, said, "Lawyers have been disbarred for less."The complaint further alleges Bondi greenlit prosecutions without probable cause against Trump adversaries — including former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose cases a federal judge dismissed in November — and against protesters detained during immigration raids. Bondi's successor, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former personal lawyer, re-indicted Comey in late April on a separate charge.The Democracy Defenders Fund says Bondi had "created an environment in which DOJ lawyers were induced to engage in acts they were ethically prohibited from doing, under threat of suspension or termination — or were fired for not doing so."The Justice Department called the complaint, "a baseless and pathetic media stunt conjured up by inept attorneys desperate for relevance," according to the Miami Herald.Bondi is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee Friday over the Epstein investigation — but only in a closed-door session, not the public sworn testimony Democrats sought."Bondi must testify under oath, on camera, for the public to see," Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) wrote on X.Since her firing, Bondi has been recovering from thyroid cancer surgery. Trump has since appointed her to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
