Those are the four words that should be used to succinctly define Pam Bondi, the current Attorney General of the United States. I have written about her previously, and I fully recognize that the Florida Bar is never going to take action against her. But rarely does a day pass without something occurring that serves as a reminder of the substantial questions that exist about why it is so troubling that she holds her current position.
We could spend some more time talking about how she continues to act as if a core aspect of her job is appearing on Fox News. That would be problematic enough on its own, but the fact that those appearances consist mostly of repeatedly either (a) lying; (b) recklessly attacking the integrity of judges; or (c) both (a) and (b).
We could also explore how she has also overseen unprecedented actions of the DOJ in arresting and pursuing federal criminal charges against judges, a New Jersey mayor, and now a sitting member of Congress for alleged interference with ICE and the FBI when those elected officials were performing official duties.
But since this news appears to be official today, let’s just limit today’s post to the reported role Bondi played in this calamity.
This might be the clearest indicator so far of how the Attorney General’s mendacity and obsequiousness results in actual incompetence. Ms. Bondi reportedly was the person to provide a legal opinion that Trump could accept a $400 million plane from Qatar to use as Air Force One and then keep after his term of office ends. A clearer, inarguable, violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution is difficult (at least so far) to envision. A lawyer in private practice giving an analogously baseless legal opinion would almost certainly risk a finding of a violation of Rule 1.1 for incompetent legal representation. Unless, of course, what the lawyer was actually doing was purposefully assisting a client in committing a crime or a fraud, in which case that would be a violation of Rule 1.2(d).
Now, the memo (if it exists) has not been made public. It has become the subject of legislative inquiry, however, as this letter lays out. Furthermore, the memo (if it exists) being authored by Bondi creates additional problems since she seems to have a significant additional conflict of interest with respect to Qatar as this letter lays out. Following up on the (if it exists) above, even if the memo does not exist or does not actually provide an analysis that blesses the acceptance of the jet, Bondi would not be out of the woods ethically. But understanding that would require her to admit that the Attorney General of the United States is not the lawyer for the President. If, in fact the President was out there claiming that the AG had provided legal cover for accepting the jet and such was not true, or if the AG actually did believe that the President would be violating the Constitution by accepting the jet, the Attorney General would be in a place of needing to work through their obligations under Rule 1.13 owed to their actual client, the United States.
I have previously written about how Trump will not be able to level the kind of destruction on our nation that he wants to accomplish without the help of lawyers. Pam Bondi, the worst Attorney General of the U.S. in my lifetime, remains right at the top of the list of lawyers who are all too willing to assist.