Former (fired) AG Pam Bondi will be testifying on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Alas, it will be behind closed doors. It would have been interesting to see if no longer being Trump’s AG she’d try to put on the sh!t show we saw unfold not long ago. Oh well. Even some Republicans, especially since they don’t have to perform like animals in the Trump Circus will be pressing Bondi moving forward. However that’s not her only problem these days and no, I’m not talking about her being diagnosed with cancer. An Ethics inquiry that could lead to Bondi’s Disbarment is headed back to the Florida Bar.
Look, having lost both parents to lung cancer back when I was a young man (45-50 years ago it was almost always a death sentence) even I don’t hate Bondi enough to wish cancer on her. I do however love the idea of her losing more than her juice in conservative Florida legal circles. Losing her license to practice law would be a fitting blow. She was sleazy when she worked for DeSantis and as you know even worse working for Trump. There is a boatload of ‘there’ there to challenge Bondi’s ethics as a lawyer and strip her of her license. However, working directly for DeSantis and then Trump gave her a BIG shield to hide behind. That’s gone.
As we learn from this Raw Story article “a sweeping ethics complaint” has been filed against her with the Florida Bar. It’s not some group of nobody’s either. Lawyers hate investigating and hate discipling them even more. It usually takes something really public and outrageous, or people with serious legal stature (sometimes both) to get a prominent attorney disbarred. Yet that folks is what Bondi is facing:
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.
Regarding that last part history teaches us that over and over people with enough money and/or power escape legal consequences for their misdeeds and even crimes. Or gotten a slap on the wrist. The name Epstein comes to mind. And of course Trump. Bondi’s problem is that she’s nowhere near as rich or connected/powerful as those two. And having lost favor with Trump she sure as hell can’t count on his help in a Bar Proceeding. No, she’ll see her career die via ETTD Syndrome. I can feel sorry for her having cancer but not about what she’s facing when it’s time for her to plead her case before the Bar. Bondi is a virulently metastatic legal tumor and the Florida Bar has a chance to excise it/her.
Of one thing we can be sure. When it’s time to appear before the Bar Bondi won’t dare display any of the outrageous smart-assed attacks she pulled during her Congressional testimony. Nor will trying to claim her ‘protected’ status of being AG extends to this day and in perpetuity. It’s GONE. The linked article is worth the minute or so to read. It details a variety of issues Bondi will be forced to defend now that the Florida Bar will be free to call her to account.
I’m pretty sure they will. DeSantis doesn’t hold the iron grip on Florida he once did and he might find himself needing his own top-drawer lawyers before long. HE won’t have the protections of his own office shielding him and more than Bondi does. The fact this whole thing started due to the leadership of a former Chief Justice of Florida’s Supreme Court is I think pretty much a guarantee the Bar will feel it has to take up the matter. Once that train starts down the tracks there will be no stopping it.
And finally, between being disbarred and facing other legal problems (not to mention medical ones) Bondi will be toast. Her life of legal sleaze deserves to come to a bitter (for her) inglorious end.
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