Pam Bondi Accused Of Misconduct By Legal Experts | EUROtoday

Roughly 70 regulation professors, attorneys and justices filed an ethics grievance in opposition to 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 grievance alleges that the previous Florida lawyer normal has labored to weaponize the Department of Justice by threatening division legal professionals with self-discipline or termination in the event that they fail “to zealously pursue the President’s political objectives.”

DOJ legal professionals say Bondi and her employees have pressured them into “violating their ethical obligations” and doing issues they’re “ethically forbidden from doing.” This has resulted in “serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice,” states the grievance, obtained by HuffPost and first reported by the Miami Herald.

Francisco Digon-Greer, counsel for the Florida Bar, dismissed the grievance in a letter on Friday, saying the establishment doesn’t “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 learn.

Dozens of authorized consultants, together with retired Florida Supreme Court justices Barbara J. Pariente and Peggy A. Quince, had signed the grievance, which demanded an investigation and sanctions in opposition to Bondi.

It was the third grievance the group has filed in opposition to Bondi, and the third denied because of her present employment standing.

Possibly anticipating one other rejection, the grievance’s authors mentioned Thursday that states are accountable for overseeing who can apply regulation of 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 guidelines {of professional} conduct. “Nowhere in the Rules or Comments is there an exemption for lawyers who are federal public officials.”

The grievance cites “three glaring examples” as proof of Bondi’s alleged misconduct, together with the April firing of immigration lawyer Erez Reuveni. Reuveni was terminated after telling a choose that the federal government’s deportation of migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador was made in “error.” He was ousted, the grievance states, “for telling the truth.”

It additionally cites the “forced resignation” of federal prosecutor Denise Cheung in February after she declined Trump officers’ request to open a legal investigation right into a authorities contractor “because there was insufficient predication.” The third instance is the DOJ’s efforts to dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ legal indictment with out prejudice. Nearly a dozen legal professionals who objected to the DOJ’s proposal, calling it an improper “quid pro quo,” had been both compelled to resign or resigned after being positioned on administrative depart, the grievance states.

A DOJ official dismissed the grievance 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 employees Chad Mizelle mentioned in an announcement. “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 particular adviser to the president throughout his first impeachment and supported his efforts to disclaim his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden. During her affirmation listening to in January, she refused to acknowledge his defeat.

Since her appointment because the nation’s high lawyer, Bondi has sided with Trump on each controversial and constitutionally questionable order and has publicly vowed to “root out” anybody inside the DOJ and FBI “who despise Donald Trump.”

Bondi offered herself as an impartial prosecutor throughout her Jan. 15 Senate affirmation listening to, saying that “politics will not play a part” in deciding whom to research and that she would train impartial judgment.

“Politics has to be taken out of this system,” she mentioned. “This department has been weaponized for years and years and years, and it has to stop.”

Trump on Wednesday ordered Bondi and different federal officers to research the Biden administration and his predecessor’s well being whereas in workplace.