Remember the disciplinary complaint filed against Pam Bondi?... Some wonder if Florida does...

 Back in June a coalition of legal groups, judges and attorneys filed (and later refiled) a formal ethics complaint against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of “serious professional misconduct” in her leadership of the Justice Department. After the original filing, the Florida Bar declined to address it, explaining that it does not investigate government officers while they hold office.  Once Bondi left her position at the DoJ, the claimants re-filed the complaint, but it is not clear the the Bar has done anything about it.  JuristNews noticed, and published a comment here.

Florida Bar Hides From Ethical Responsibilities

 Over at Above the Law, Joe Patrice has published a short post worth reading called Florida Bar Hides From Ethical Responsibilities, Shrugs As DHS Lawyer Compares Federal Judges To Murderers And Rapists.  You can find it here.  In it, he reminds us that 

When the Florida Bar didn’t want to perform the most basic of its duties as the state’s designated professional licensing authority, it invented a new rule out of whole cloth to justify punting a detailed ethics complaint about then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The entity charged with maintaining the integrity of the Florida legal profession couldn’t even consider the complaint against Bondi because it cannot investigate a sitting officer appointed under the U.S. Constitution while in office.

More importantly, that even though over 120 scholars, practitioners, and former judges wrote to remind the Florida Bar that since Bondi left office their reasoning does not bar taking on the complaint, the Florida Bar has ignored it.  And now, the Florida Bar has used the same reasoning to refuse to investigate DHS General Counsel James Percival.

Patrice argues, and I agree, that 

If the profession is to survive this administration, licensing authorities need to get serious about sanctioning and disbarring these people. These are not close ethical calls. This is the exact behavior that we created professional discipline to punish, and every time a licensing authority looks the other way it undermines the rule of law and its own credibility.

 The ABA has more here.

Two recent posts on the incompetence and/or misconduct of "Trump lawyers"

 In Politico:  Trump’s inexperienced federal prosecutors are running into trouble in court

In Above the Law: Trump Lawyers Keep Missing Easy Filing Deadlines… How Is This Hard For Them?

Legal groups file new ethics complaint against Pam Bondi

About a week and a half ago, it was reported that a coalition of legal groups, judges and attorneys on Wednesday refiled a formal ethics complaint against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of “serious professional misconduct” in her leadership of the Justice Department and handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.  Courthouse News Service has the story here.  Above the Law has more here.

The story says "refiled" because a complaint was filed last year (around June), while she was still in office. (See here). That complaint was rejected by the state of Florida on the basis that the state would not prosecute her while she held her office as Attorney General.  Well, now that she is no longer serving in that capacity, it is time for Florida to decide whether to take on the complaint.  I doubt they will, but I hope I am wrong.  

DOJ Sues D.C. Bar For Trying to Hold Trump Lawyers To Ethical Rules

Back in March I reported that the Department of Justice proposed a new federal regulation to grant then Attorney General Pam Bondi the right to unilaterally interfere with state bar ethics investigations into current and former government lawyers.  See here.  Whether the proposal will have be adopted or whether it will have any real effect remains to be seen but that has not stopped the fearless leaders at the DOJ who apparently have decided to step it up a notch. 

A few days ago it was reported that the DOJ has actually filed a complaint against the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, and the D.C. Court of Appeals — essentially any entity that might be in a position to take a lawyer’s license away — on the theory that the bar disciplinary process violates the Supremacy Clause and Article II when applied to former DOJ attorneys (even thought there is applicable law that explicitly recognizes that local bar authorities have jurisdiction over government lawyers committing misconduct in their jurisdictions.)

For coverage of this latest development check out Above the Law, The Hill and The ABA Journal.

DC Circuit signals Trump’s law firm sanctions likely unlawful

 Last Thursday, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit heard argument in Perkins Coie v. DOJ, the case in which a few law firms that were targeted by Trump because the firms hired people or represented clients the president does not like.  The firms challenged the executive orders which Trump signed to strip lawyers of security clearances, eliminate their access to government contracts and employment, and which sought to prevent the firms’ lawyers from having access federal buildings. All of the law firms who chose to challenge the orders have won their challenges so far.  In fact, the lower courts didn’t simply enjoin the orders but also restored yanked clearances. 

Observers of the oral argument have suggested that the panel agreed with the law firms in that the executive orders are unconstitutional. See, coverage in Courthouse News Service.  Even the right wing Washington Legal Foundation agrees that they are.  See here.  See also coverage in The Hill.

Three more federal prosecutors disqualified because they were appointed illegally by Trump administration

 Federal judges keep telling the Justice Department that President Trump's hand-picked U.S. attorneys are serving illegally.  NPR has the story here.

Ed Martin is facing disciplinary action

 U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin is facing disciplinary action after he sent a letter to Georgetown University threatening legal action.  Above the Law has the story here.  The Hill has more here.

Pam Bondi wants to have the right to prevent states from conducting investigations into unethical conduct of DOJ lawyers

 In what highly respected legal ethics scholar Stephen Gillers has called “a DOJ powergrab,” last week the Department of Justice proposed a new federal regulation to grant Attorney General Pam Bondi the right to unilaterally interfere with state bar ethics investigations into current and former government lawyers. The rule is contrary to established law and should not survive scrutiny, but, as Joe Patrice has eloquently stated, “like a lot of this Justice Department’s shenanigans, the rule wasn’t really intended to hold up under scrutiny, it just needed to assert a big, splashy threat that might silence anyone who doesn’t want to have a protracted fight with the Department of Justice.”  Go here for Patrice’s thoughtful analysis. 

Aside from the fact that the Justice Department has zero credibility when it says it would conduct a serious investigation regarding the conduct of any of its own lawyers, the proposed rule goes against the so-called “McDade Amendment” (28 U.S.C. § 530B), which states that government attorneys “shall be subject to State laws and rules… governing attorneys in each State where such attorney engages in that attorney’s duties, to the same extent and in the same manner as other attorneys in that State.” Congress passed this provision specifically because DOJ tried to exempt its lawyers from state ethics rules years ago. 

For more on this story, check out the ABA Journal and The Hill. For a video comment, check out the YouTube channel "Legal Eagle" here.

What to do about Trump lawyers

Joe Patrice has an idea.  Read:  "Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump’s Lawyers" in Above the Law.

Judge orders Lindsey Halligan to stop 'masquerading' as US attorney

 A few days ago I posted that a judge issued an order to show cause why Lindsey Halligan's conduct in continuing to refer to herself as "US Attorney" did not constitute a violation of rule 8.4 regarding dishonesty, among others.  See here and here.

A few days later, after a hearing, the judge has issued an order.  In it, the judge ordered the removal of the words “United States Attorney” from government filings in a case Halligan was involved in and prevented her from representing herself as the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia unless appointed or confirmed by the Senate.  The judge also stated: “This charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney for this District in direct defiance of binding court orders must come to an end,”  Courthouse News Service has the story and a link to the order, here.

See also, 

Brutal, Humiliating Benchslap Puts An End To Lindsey Halligan Experiment.  Above the Law.

Judge posts job listing for prosecutor role Halligan claims to hold.  The Hill

Lindsey Halligan, Trump's former personal attorney, exits federal prosecutor post. NPR

Updates on the stories regarding Trump's illegally appointed prosecutors

Here are some follow-up stories related to the stories I posted a few days ago on judges disqualifying Trump appointed prosecutors:

Trump’s Loyalist Prosecutors Continue To Get Kicked Off Cases Because They’re Not Legally Appointed (Techdirt)

Halligan doubles down on US attorney title (The Hill)

Lindsey Halligan Says Her ‘I’m An Illegal Appointment’ T-Shirt Has People Asking A Lot Of Questions Already Answered By Her Shirt (Above the Law)

Pressure mounts as Trump digs in heels on US attorneys (The Hill)

Two Trump appointed attorneys disqualified (one for claiming to hold office she does not; another after the court found he did not have a right to hold the office)

Back in November of 2025, a federal District Judge found that Lindsey Halligan's appointment as interim US Attorney was unlawful, and that, therefore, she had no authority to hold the office she claimed to hold at the time.  As you probably remember, this is the insurance lawyer with no prosecutorial experience that the Trump administration appointed, among other things, to bring charges against James Comey.  

Although the government appealed the judge's opinion and order, no court has issued a stay which means the order remains in place.  

For that reason, earlier this week, another federal judge was surprised to see that Ms. Halligan has continued to appear before his court still claiming to be a US Attorney, and promptly ordered her to explain herself and to explain why her conduct does not constitute a false or misleading statement in violation of professional conduct rules.  

The Hill and Above the Law have the full story (and the judge's order).

Meanwhile, in New York, another federal judge has disqualified the top federal prosecutor in upstate New York and blocked subpoenas his office issued to state Attorney General Letitia James finding that the lawyer's service as acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York “was and is unlawful” because the Justice Department maneuvered to keep him in the role after judges declined to extend his tenure, in violation of statutory procedure.

Again, The Hill and Above the Law have the story.

More lawyers quit from Department of Justice

“Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. Justice Department’s unit responsible for defending key Trump administration policies in court, have left their positions since President Donald Trump’s November election or announced plans to leave, according to a new list.  Read the full story here.

h/t Renee Knake Jefferson's Legal Ethics Roundup.

DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi

 DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi.  Read the story here.

h/t Renee Knake Jefferson's Legal Ethics Roundup.

More on Pam Bondi

Two new items on Pam Bondi:

First, a new article by Nick Akerman, a former assistant special Watergate prosecutor and a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York:  "Judge Boasberg should appoint a special counsel to investigate Bondi and her DOJ"

Second, here is a copy of an ethics complaint filed in Florida against Bondi.  It is signed by about 70 lawyers, law professors and former judges.  The Florida bar refused to act on it saying the disciplinary agency "does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office."  The Miami Herald has a story on this here.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fires top Justice Department ethics official

Given her track record, it should not surprise anyone that Attorney General Pam Bondi just fired one of the top career officials tasked with advising her and other senior Justice Department officials of their ethical obligations.  Go here for more on the story.