{"id":153199,"date":"2026-05-29T07:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/29\/new-ethics-complaint-reminds-florida-bar-that-pam-bondi-isnt-attorney-general-anymore\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T07:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T15:20:09","slug":"new-ethics-complaint-reminds-florida-bar-that-pam-bondi-isnt-attorney-general-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/05\/29\/new-ethics-complaint-reminds-florida-bar-that-pam-bondi-isnt-attorney-general-anymore\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ethics Complaint Reminds Florida Bar That Pam Bondi Isn\u2019t Attorney General Anymore"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a big week for bar complaints! Hot on the heels of an ethics complaint filed in New York against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche<\/a>, over 120 scholars, practitioners, and former judges signed onto a Florida bar complaint against Blanche\u2019s former boss Pam Bondi. <\/p>\n

If a complaint against Bondi sounds familiar, that\u2019s because 70-odd lawyers, scholars, and former judges asked the Bar to investigate Pam Bondi\u2019s conduct as Attorney General back in June 2025. At that time, the Bar declined, citing a not-at-all-made-up rule that it \u201cdoes not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.\u201d The Bar probably thought it had bought itself a reprieve, forgetting that Donald Trump loves firing the women in his cabinet. Now Bondi\u2019s back on the street, and the same group \u2014 bolstered by even more signatories \u2014 have returned, ominously tapping the \u201cwhile they are in office\u201d sign. <\/p>\n

Just as we\u2019d predicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not at all clear what Bondi does these days. The announcement of her shitcanning said that she would \u201ctransition to a much needed and important new job in the private sector.\u201d That \u201ctransition\u201d didn\u2019t last long, with Todd Blanche calling himself the \u201cActing Attorney General\u201d almost immediately. Her Florida Bar profile now lists an email address at Ballard Partners, the government affairs shop where she worked before running the Justice Department into the ground. Even if she lingers on in some quasi-official capacity, Blanche\u2019s title bump establishes that Bondi is no longer a sitting officer appointed under the U.S. Constitution<\/em>. <\/p>\n

The lead signatory on the renewed complaint is Peggy Quince, the retired Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. The former Chief Justice of the state\u2019s highest court placing her name at the top of an ethics complaint should grab the attention of disciplinary authorities. Joining her are retired federal judges Nancy Gertner and Michael Luttig \u2014 the latter being the conservative legal icon whose involvement should trouble anyone inclined to wave this off as Democratic lawfare.<\/p>\n

The complaint is, to use the technical term\u2026 a lot. Structured around Bondi\u2019s first-day \u201czealous advocacy<\/a>\u201d memorandum, which rebranded the DOJ as Trump\u2019s personal law firm<\/a>, the complaint places the original sin of Bondi\u2019s tenure in her threatening any government attorney who \u201cdeprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers.\u201d While Donald Trump is very much not<\/em> the client of Department of Justice, Bondi\u2019s proclamation has carried over, with Todd Blanche openly claiming that he believes the president has the \u201cright\u201d to influence criminal probes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which, for Blanche, seems to run hand-in-hand with the president\u2019s right to hop into Word and write his own dementia-addled briefs<\/a>. <\/p>\n

From that root, the complaint identifies four branches. First, the coercion: Erez Reuveni fired for the crime of telling a federal judge the truth, Denise Cheung forced out for refusing to sign a letter she knew lacked probable cause, the Eric Adams prosecutors resigning en masse rather than dismiss a sound indictment as a political favor. Second, the Epstein files debacle. Third, the violated court orders \u2014 and there are a staggering<\/em> number of them. Fourth, the prosecutions brought with no probable cause whatsoever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important not to lose sight of the fact that, while the complaint recounts three examples of professional coercion directed at lawyers who refused to compromise their ethics for the administration, this is still only a sample:<\/p>\n

\n

Ms. Bondi\u2019s actions, directly and through subordinates like Messrs. Blanche, Bove, and Martin, violated Rule 4-8.4(a), which provides that it is misconduct for a lawyer to \u201cviolate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so<\/em> through the acts of another<\/em>. . . .\u201d As described above, Ms. Bondi acted directly, or through her senior managers, to compel their subordinate lawyers to violate their professional obligations. These actions were knowing, moreover, since in every case, one or more lawyers were fired or allowed to resign after <\/em>they had explained how following these orders would cause them to act unethically. Finally, Ms. Bondi\u2019s actions violate Rule 4-5.1, the ethical rule regarding a lawyer\u2019s ethical responsibility with respect to her managerial duties as Attorney General and her supervision over subordinate lawyers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Harry Truman kept a sign sitting on his desk that said \u201cthe buck stops here.\u201d Bondi does not want that on her desk. In fact, she\u2019s been burned before by what\u2019s sitting on her desk.<\/p>\n

Bondi infamously went on TV to tell the public that the Epstein client list was \u201csitting on my desk right now to review.\u201d One of two things are true: it was either NOT on her desk because it didn\u2019t exist, or it was on her desk and her review ended with \u201cwell, there\u2019s no way we can ever let anyone see this!\u201d In either event, her public remarks made promises she didn\u2019t keep. When the actual file releases began, the process was so botched that DOJ published unredacted names, birthdates, and in some cases nude photographs of nearly 100 victims, some possibly underage. Counsel for the survivors called it \u201cthe single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.\u201d A nine-page internal review memo devoted exactly two pages to identifying victim information, with no requirement for a multi-level review. <\/p>\n

The complaint frames it as a Rule 4-1.1 competence failure and a Rule 4-5.1 supervision failure. Both are true. It is also just grotesque.<\/p>\n

The repeated violations of court orders have become so routine they\u2019re getting overlooked. Patrick J. Schiltz, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for Minnesota, compiled a list\u00a0of 96 orders violated in 74 cases across that judicial district. When the U.S. Attorney called the list \u201cfar beyond the pale of accuracy,\u201d the court reviewed it again\u2026 and found 113 more<\/em> violations! Despite the growing attention surrounding the ignored orders, Bondi did nothing, violating Rules 4-5.1 and 4-8.4.<\/p>\n

Recounting cases from Jim Comey\u2019s sea shells to the Jerome Powell probe, the complaint flags violations of Rules 4-3.8(a), 4-5.1 and 4-8.4(a) for initiating, inducing, supporting, ratifying, or knowingly permitting Department of Justice prosecutions absent probable cause.<\/p>\n

The procedural posture is airtight. Under Rule 3-7.16(d), the Bar may review complaints against former constitutional officers, and may do so for six years after they leave office. Under Rule 3-7.3(a), Bar counsel must<\/em> investigate any complaint alleging facts that, if proven, would violate the rules, and may only decline if the facts wouldn\u2019t constitute a violation even if true. The escape hatches have been welded shut one by one.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve noted before<\/a>, bar discipline is the only accountability mechanism left standing for Trump\u2019s lawyers \u2014 criminal liability is foreclosed by Trump v. United States<\/em> immunity and the inevitable pardons, and civil liability dies on the vine of qualified immunity. The DOJ understands this perfectly well, which is why it\u2019s currently suing the D.C. Bar<\/a> and floating a new Federal Rule to strip state bars of their authority over government lawyers and, as the case may be, former<\/em> government lawyers. They are not spending this much effort if they don\u2019t think it might work to force a professional regulator to cower. <\/p>\n

The question is whether the Florida Bar believes the rules it purports to uphold apply to one of the most prominent lawyers it has ever held jurisdiction over. <\/p>\n

(Check out the complaint on the next page\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump\u2019s Lawyers<\/a><\/em>
Todd Blanche Faces New York Bar Complaint After Federal Judge Flags Vindictive Prosecution<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post New Ethics Complaint Reminds Florida Bar That Pam Bondi Isn\u2019t Attorney General Anymore<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Photo by Nathan Posner\/Anadolu via Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a big week for bar complaints! Hot on the heels of an ethics complaint filed in New York against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche<\/a>, over 120 scholars, practitioners, and former judges signed onto a Florida bar complaint against Blanche\u2019s former boss Pam Bondi. <\/p>\n

If a complaint against Bondi sounds familiar, that\u2019s because 70-odd lawyers, scholars, and former judges asked the Bar to investigate Pam Bondi\u2019s conduct as Attorney General back in June 2025. At that time, the Bar declined, citing a not-at-all-made-up rule that it \u201cdoes not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.\u201d The Bar probably thought it had bought itself a reprieve, forgetting that Donald Trump loves firing the women in his cabinet. Now Bondi\u2019s back on the street, and the same group \u2014 bolstered by even more signatories \u2014 have returned, ominously tapping the \u201cwhile they are in office\u201d sign. <\/p>\n

Just as we\u2019d predicted<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not at all clear what Bondi does these days. The announcement of her shitcanning said that she would \u201ctransition to a much needed and important new job in the private sector.\u201d That \u201ctransition\u201d didn\u2019t last long, with Todd Blanche calling himself the \u201cActing Attorney General\u201d almost immediately. Her Florida Bar profile now lists an email address at Ballard Partners, the government affairs shop where she worked before running the Justice Department into the ground. Even if she lingers on in some quasi-official capacity, Blanche\u2019s title bump establishes that Bondi is no longer a sitting officer appointed under the U.S. Constitution<\/em>. <\/p>\n

The lead signatory on the renewed complaint is Peggy Quince, the retired Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court. The former Chief Justice of the state\u2019s highest court placing her name at the top of an ethics complaint should grab the attention of disciplinary authorities. Joining her are retired federal judges Nancy Gertner and Michael Luttig \u2014 the latter being the conservative legal icon whose involvement should trouble anyone inclined to wave this off as Democratic lawfare.<\/p>\n

The complaint is, to use the technical term\u2026 a lot. Structured around Bondi\u2019s first-day \u201czealous advocacy<\/a>\u201d memorandum, which rebranded the DOJ as Trump\u2019s personal law firm<\/a>, the complaint places the original sin of Bondi\u2019s tenure in her threatening any government attorney who \u201cdeprives the President of the benefit of his lawyers.\u201d While Donald Trump is very much not<\/em> the client of Department of Justice, Bondi\u2019s proclamation has carried over, with Todd Blanche openly claiming that he believes the president has the \u201cright\u201d to influence criminal probes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Which, for Blanche, seems to run hand-in-hand with the president\u2019s right to hop into Word and write his own dementia-addled briefs<\/a>. <\/p>\n

From that root, the complaint identifies four branches. First, the coercion: Erez Reuveni fired for the crime of telling a federal judge the truth, Denise Cheung forced out for refusing to sign a letter she knew lacked probable cause, the Eric Adams prosecutors resigning en masse rather than dismiss a sound indictment as a political favor. Second, the Epstein files debacle. Third, the violated court orders \u2014 and there are a staggering<\/em> number of them. Fourth, the prosecutions brought with no probable cause whatsoever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important not to lose sight of the fact that, while the complaint recounts three examples of professional coercion directed at lawyers who refused to compromise their ethics for the administration, this is still only a sample:<\/p>\n

\n

Ms. Bondi\u2019s actions, directly and through subordinates like Messrs. Blanche, Bove, and Martin, violated Rule 4-8.4(a), which provides that it is misconduct for a lawyer to \u201cviolate or attempt to violate the Rules of Professional Conduct, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so<\/em> through the acts of another<\/em>. . . .\u201d As described above, Ms. Bondi acted directly, or through her senior managers, to compel their subordinate lawyers to violate their professional obligations. These actions were knowing, moreover, since in every case, one or more lawyers were fired or allowed to resign after <\/em>they had explained how following these orders would cause them to act unethically. Finally, Ms. Bondi\u2019s actions violate Rule 4-5.1, the ethical rule regarding a lawyer\u2019s ethical responsibility with respect to her managerial duties as Attorney General and her supervision over subordinate lawyers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Harry Truman kept a sign sitting on his desk that said \u201cthe buck stops here.\u201d Bondi does not want that on her desk. In fact, she\u2019s been burned before by what\u2019s sitting on her desk.<\/p>\n

Bondi infamously went on TV to tell the public that the Epstein client list was \u201csitting on my desk right now to review.\u201d One of two things are true: it was either NOT on her desk because it didn\u2019t exist, or it was on her desk and her review ended with \u201cwell, there\u2019s no way we can ever let anyone see this!\u201d In either event, her public remarks made promises she didn\u2019t keep. When the actual file releases began, the process was so botched that DOJ published unredacted names, birthdates, and in some cases nude photographs of nearly 100 victims, some possibly underage. Counsel for the survivors called it \u201cthe single most egregious violation of victim privacy in one day in United States history.\u201d A nine-page internal review memo devoted exactly two pages to identifying victim information, with no requirement for a multi-level review. <\/p>\n

The complaint frames it as a Rule 4-1.1 competence failure and a Rule 4-5.1 supervision failure. Both are true. It is also just grotesque.<\/p>\n

The repeated violations of court orders have become so routine they\u2019re getting overlooked. Patrick J. Schiltz, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for Minnesota, compiled a list\u00a0of 96 orders violated in 74 cases across that judicial district. When the U.S. Attorney called the list \u201cfar beyond the pale of accuracy,\u201d the court reviewed it again\u2026 and found 113 more<\/em> violations! Despite the growing attention surrounding the ignored orders, Bondi did nothing, violating Rules 4-5.1 and 4-8.4.<\/p>\n

Recounting cases from Jim Comey\u2019s sea shells to the Jerome Powell probe, the complaint flags violations of Rules 4-3.8(a), 4-5.1 and 4-8.4(a) for initiating, inducing, supporting, ratifying, or knowingly permitting Department of Justice prosecutions absent probable cause.<\/p>\n

The procedural posture is airtight. Under Rule 3-7.16(d), the Bar may review complaints against former constitutional officers, and may do so for six years after they leave office. Under Rule 3-7.3(a), Bar counsel must<\/em> investigate any complaint alleging facts that, if proven, would violate the rules, and may only decline if the facts wouldn\u2019t constitute a violation even if true. The escape hatches have been welded shut one by one.<\/p>\n

As we\u2019ve noted before<\/a>, bar discipline is the only accountability mechanism left standing for Trump\u2019s lawyers \u2014 criminal liability is foreclosed by Trump v. United States<\/em> immunity and the inevitable pardons, and civil liability dies on the vine of qualified immunity. The DOJ understands this perfectly well, which is why it\u2019s currently suing the D.C. Bar<\/a> and floating a new Federal Rule to strip state bars of their authority over government lawyers and, as the case may be, former<\/em> government lawyers. They are not spending this much effort if they don\u2019t think it might work to force a professional regulator to cower. <\/p>\n

The question is whether the Florida Bar believes the rules it purports to uphold apply to one of the most prominent lawyers it has ever held jurisdiction over. <\/p>\n

(Check out the complaint on the next page\u2026)<\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump\u2019s Lawyers<\/a><\/em>
Todd Blanche Faces New York Bar Complaint After Federal Judge Flags Vindictive Prosecution<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong> 2<\/a>Next \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a big week for bar complaints! Hot on the heels of an ethics complaint filed in New York against Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, over 120 scholars, practitioners, and former judges signed onto a Florida bar complaint against Blanche\u2019s former boss Pam Bondi. If a complaint against Bondi sounds familiar, that\u2019s because 70-odd lawyers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}