The next member of Trump’s Cabinet who needs to go is Attorney General Pam Bondi.
She is so brazen in her contempt for legal rules that she’s scheming to cover up for unethical subordinates, even if they no longer work for her. Bondi wants to suppress, or at least stall, state Bar investigations against them.
Under a proposed rule the Department of Justice published in the Federal Register, state authorities would be required to notify her of pending grievances and suspend their own investigations until Bondi acts on her own or decides not to do so. DOJ employees who know of pending cases would be required to report them.
The filing nearly coincided with the Florida Bar’s announcement, subsequently and swiftly retracted, that it was investigating Lindsey Halligan, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The pursuit of vendettas
After her predecessor refused to charge them, Halligan obtained indictments of former FBI Director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, carrying out one of President Trump’s vendettas.
A judge dismissed the indictments because Halligan was appointed unlawfully. Several judges involved in the case implied ethics violations by her.
Halligan, a 2013 University of Miami law graduate, was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2014.
The proposed rule described in the Federal Register would demand that any licensing agency, such as the Florida Bar, notify the DOJ of a complaint against a present or former DOJ lawyer and defer action until the attorney general issues an all-clear.
It’s a grave overreach.
The DOJ has no more authority over state Bar units than any private citizen does, but the notice refers to “appropriate action,” presumably a lawsuit, to compel compliance.
Trumpian propaganda
The rulemaking notice came larded with Trumpian propaganda. It says “political activists have weaponized the Bar complaint and investigation process,” which “risks chilling the zealous advocacy by Department attorneys.”
The notice added, “Even more troubling than the recent spate of state Bar complaints is the willingness of some state Bar disciplinary authorities to give credence to such complaints.”
The general public has until April 6 to submit comments for or against Bondi’s power grab. Go to federalregister.gov and search for docket OAG199.
The notice did not mention that Bondi herself was named in a complaint the Florida Bar refused to accept, citing an unpublished policy against disciplining lawyers like her until they have left public office.
The bewildering and unexplained switch over Halligan began when the Bar replied to a complaint against her filed by the nonprofit organization Campaign for Accountability.
It had sent the same complaint to the Virginia Bar, which does not list Halligan as a member.
The Campaign for Accountability accused her of misrepresenting herself as a U.S. district attorney despite a judge’s order disqualifying her, and of misrepresenting relevant facts to the grand jury that indicted Comey and James. The Virginia Bar said the issue should be left to the courts.
Mysterious backtracking
The Florida Bar replied that it had an investigation pending. After many news outlets reported that, the Bar said it was an error and “no such proceeding” was pending.
“The Florida Bar received a complaint against Lindsey Halligan and, consistent with standard practice, the Bar is monitoring the ongoing legal proceedings underlying the complaint,” said Bar spokesperson Jennifer Krell Davis.
That makes no sense — unless it means the Bar is waiting to see how the DOJ’s appeals turn out. It shouldn’t.
“It’s hard to reconcile this latest statement with the Bar counsel’s previous letter saying there is an investigation pending,” Campaign for Accountability said in a statement. “If there is no longer an investigation into Halligan, the question is why not, given that three judges indicated she engaged in conduct that appears to violate ethics rules.”
The complaint against Halligan is plausible on its own merits. So was the complaint against Bondi. The Bar’s boast to be “the guardian of Florida’s legal profession” rings hollow, and that’s the public’s loss.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
