Legal groups file new ethics complaint against Pam Bondi

WASHINGTON (CN) — 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.

The new complaint comes months after the Florida Bar declined to examine an initial set of ethics charges against Bondi — and days before House lawmakers are set to grill the former Trump administration official on her role in publishing the Epstein documents.

That issue formed a central pillar of the ethics accusations levied against Bondi on Wednesday by the legal groups, which included Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Democracy Defenders Fund and Lawyers for the Rule of Law. The advocates, joined by more than 120 retired judges, law professors and attorneys, accused the former attorney general of botching the Epstein files’ publication and inadvertently releasing the personal information of dozens of victims.

“The Department of Justice’s release, redaction, withholding and messaging related to the Epstein files, which Ms. Bondi both participated in directly and oversaw as Attorney General, has been fundamentally flawed from the beginning,” the legal groups say in the complaint.

The legal groups argued that Bondi had violated the Florida Bar’s rules of professional conduct by “misleading” the public about the scope and depth of the government’s Epstein documents. They pointed to statements she made shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration claiming she had a “client list” of Epstein’s associates on her desk and ready for publication. The Justice Department later said no such list existed.

“These statements … appeared calculated to mislead the public into believing that Ms. Bondi had access to evidence of criminal misconduct that she did not, in fact, have access to at that time,” the groups say. “This was a clear misrepresentation of the facts.”

The advocacy groups also contended that Bondi’s handling of the Epstein documents violated the letter of the Epstein Files Transparency Act — a bipartisan measure passed by Congress last year and signed by Trump directing the Justice Department to publish all its files on the late financier and convicted sex criminal. They claimed the former attorney general showed “reckless disregard” for the law and that she failed to ensure Justice Department attorneys had properly redacted sensitive information in the files the agency released.

The Justice Department’s independent inspector general last month opened an investigation into the agency’s handling of Epstein files redactions, after it inadvertently published the names and images of some of Epstein’s victims.

In addition to violating the law, the legal groups contended, Bondi’s approach to the Epstein files release demonstrated a “shocking lack of competence.”

“Ms. Bondi was in control of the sensitive and private information of dozens of victims and under a legal obligation to maintain those confidences,” they wrote. “Her failure to take adequate precautions to prevent the release of such information, even after being warned by outside counsel about prior reckless disclosures, can only be considered reckless and prejudicial to the administration of justice.”

The advocacy groups also accuse the former attorney general of violating state bar guidelines in her handling of the Justice Department’s reported violation of more than 100 court orders in immigration detention cases. They pointed to her oversight of what they called politicized prosecutions against Trump foes, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI Director James Comey and outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell.

The complaint argued that Bondi launched criminal investigations and prosecutions against those figures and others despite lacking probable cause.

Wednesday’s ethics complaint is the second time these legal groups have asked the Florida Bar to investigate Bondi’s conduct. The Bar has previously declined to consider their accusations, arguing that it would not probe a sitting attorney general while she was in office.

Trump, however, fired Bondi in April and she has since left the administration — and the advocacy groups in their fresh complaint argued that it was “imperative” that the Florida Bar investigate her conduct now.

“Ms. Bondi’s misdeeds were not minor — they resulted in prejudice to the legal rights of those contending with the Department of Justice and injury to the public’s perception of the fairness of the legal system,” they said.

A spokesperson for the Florida Bar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bondi, meanwhile, is slated to travel to Capitol Hill on Friday and meet with lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee for a closed-door, transcribed interview on her handling of the Epstein files.

The former attorney general’s appearance before the panel has been a controversial matter on Capitol Hill, as Democrats accused her of flouting a congressional subpoena last month when she failed to appear for a deposition on the date set by a legal summons authorized in March. The Justice Department argued at the time that Bondi was not required to comply with the subpoena because it was issued in her capacity as attorney general.

House Republicans announced earlier this month that they’d rescheduled Bondi’s appearance before the Oversight Committee. But they said she would only meet with lawmakers for a “transcribed interview,” and not a formal deposition which would be subject to more stringent rules.

Sources familiar with the process, however, pointed out that Bondi will still be subject to federal law about making false statements to Congress during Friday’s interview.

The former attorney general, for her part, has been apoplectic in recent public appearances when asked about her handling of the Epstein files. Pressed by both Democrats and Republicans on the subject during a contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this year, Bondi accused lawmakers of using the Epstein documents as a distraction from the Trump administration’s political successes.

The president, who had a relationship with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, has long denied any knowledge of the late financier’s sex crimes.

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