A legal coalition that failed last year to force a Florida Bar investigation into Pam Bondi says it will try again now that she’s out as U.S. attorney general. Bondi, a former two-term Florida attorney general, is licensed by the state’s Bar. The coalition brought together three legal advocacy groups and roughly 70 lawyers, former judges and legal scholars, including South Florida defense attorney Jon May, who filed the original complaint, and retired Florida Supreme Court justices Peggy Quince and Barbara Pariente.
May said the coalition is working on a new ethics complaint that will use the same core legal arguments as the one filed in June 2025, but will be expanded to include conduct that surfaced afterward. He said the result would be a “greatly enhanced” and “significantly stronger” factual presentation.
The initial effort stalled while Bondi was still U.S. attorney general. The Florida Bar declined to proceed, citing a policy against investigating sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they remain in office. May then asked the Florida Supreme Court, through a writ of mandamus, to force the Bar to act, but the court refused, ruling that he had not shown a clear legal right to that relief.
Because Bondi is no longer a sitting federal officer, the coalition says the Florida Bar’s earlier reason for refusing to investigate no longer applies. After President Donald Trump named Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acting attorney general Thursday, Bondi said in a Justice Department statement that she would spend “the next month” transitioning the office to him before moving to “an important private sector role.” She added that she would continue “fighting for President Trump and this Administration.”
May said Thursday he would like to file the new complaint quickly, even “tomorrow,” but added that with multiple organizations and lawyers involved, “cooler heads will prevail.”
He said the revised filing could cite additional matters in which judges “threatened or initiated” contempt proceedings, cases in which grand juries refused to indict, and Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files. But he declined to identify the final list of incidents, saying the coalition wants every allegation in the complaint to be in the “public record” and “bulletproof.”
The original complaint focused on three cases. One involved Kilmar Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador despite a court order barring his removal. DOJ lawyer Erez Reuveni later told a court the deportation was the result of an “administrative error.” He was then suspended, which the coalition cited as evidence that DOJ lawyers were being punished for candor. The complaint also cited an effort to push forward a criminal investigation tied to an EPA clean energy contract and the dismissal of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Overall, the coalition argued that Bondi’s Justice Department pressured lawyers to take actions they believed were unethical or unsupported by law.
Bondi never filed a formal response to the original complaint. The Florida Bar dismissed it without opening an investigation. But in comments to the Miami Herald, Justice Department Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle called it a “vexatious attempt” by “out-of-state lawyers to weaponize the bar complaint process.” Bondi later defended Reuveni’s suspension on Fox News Sunday, saying a government lawyer conceding facts in court was like “a defense attorney walking in conceding something in a criminal matter.” In a filing with the Florida Supreme Court, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called the coalition’s challenge “partisan lawfare.”
The U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to two emails seeking comment.
May said Bondi could face serious discipline if the Florida Bar agrees with the coalition’s facts. Asked whether she could lose her license, he replied: “Absolutely.” He added that if the facts are proven, “it’s black and white” and “overwhelming,” though he said he would be satisfied with a suspension or public reprimand.
“My goal was never to get her disbarred,” May explained.
He said the effort is not only about the former attorney general. “My goal here is to try to make an example out of Pam Bondi,” May said, both to deter similar conduct by the lawyers who replace her and to show that “as long as you’re a member of the bar, you can be punished for your past conduct.”
Last Updated on April 4, 2026 by Joe Douglass
