BREAKING: Pam Bondi gets news on DISBARMENT

You're watching The Legal Breakdown. Glenn, it looks like Pam Bondi's troubles are not getting any better. They're getting worse. Can you explain what the implications of her firing are as it relates to the Bar Council in Florida?

State Bar, where she holds her license to practice law. She was actually being shielded from an ethics investigation. Why? Well, each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia have their own rules and regulations and protocols regarding when they will and when they will not engage in an ethics investigation. Down in Florida the State

Bar has a rule that they are governed by, they must follow this rule, they will not investigate somebody who is a constitutionally appointed officer. Translated that means if you're appointed by the president and you're confirmed by the Senate such that you're an executive branch appointed official, the Florida State Bar has decided for better or worse, I would suggest worse, that you can engage in all of the unethical conduct you want and

they will not commence an investigation. Importantly, multiple ethics complaints had been filed against Pam Bondi for, you know, the fact that she was just wreaking havoc on the Department of Justice and we can go through the parade of horribles in a few minutes, but we all saw it and the Florida State Bar looked at those multiple ethics complaints and they said, you know what, we've got this rule, you see.

And Brian, these complaints were filed by groups that included, for example, 70 lawyers, Florida lawyers, including former judges, including legal scholars, even including two retired Florida State Supreme Court justices that were demanding an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi for what she was doing you know in the harsh light of day as Attorney General. Well now that today is mentioned that filed complaints

previously, complaints that were dismissed, they are reportedly refiling and what they said they are doing and I'm going to quote from some of the reporting is they are preparing a quote greatly enhanced and significantly stronger ethics

complaint because they filed the last one before she lied to Congress about the Epstein files. And there being no evidence that Donald Trump did anything wrong contained in the files. We learned that was a lie before she violated the Epstein Files Transparency Act, before she went after six

innocent members of Congress and tried to misuse and abuse the power of the grand jury, before she issued or authorized lawless subpoenas to harass Chairman Powell because he wouldn't bend the knee to Donald Trump and lower interest rates, and on and on and on. I think our viewers get the picture. So when these 70 lawyers, former judges, legal scholars, and two retired Florida State Supreme Court justices said we are about to file a greatly enhanced and significantly stronger ethics complaint

against Pam Bondi, it looks like she's got real trouble ahead. Glenn, I'm glad that this is happening, but I'm also, I think, jaded by just the overt corruption that we see in our government. And so when I think about this, my thoughts immediately go to, well, I'm sure she's got friends in high places. This was after all the attorney general of Florida and the attorney general of the United States. And so when it comes to the Bar Council

holding her to account for what she's done, for the corruption that she's engaged in, I have doubts as to whether we'll actually see that justice come to fruition, and rightfully so. I mean, you and I have spoken, you know, we're almost at 700 episodes

of the Legal Breakdown. We have seen a lot of bad people kind of skirt, skirt their legal issues to the ends of the earth. And so how confident are you that, that Pam Bondi is actually gonna see some accountability for what she's done?

Brian, first of all, if you're not jaded, you're not paying attention. I agree with you. We have seen a lack of accountability over and over and over again. But in this arena, attorney ethics and investigations conducted by state bar counsel, we've actually

seen accountability over and over and over again. Because the same thing happened to Rudy Giuliani. He was investigated by the D.C. and New York bars, and he was disbarred in both jurisdictions. John Eastman was disbarred. Kenneth Chesbrough was disbarred. Jeffrey Clark was disbarred.

And I have to believe some of what they did pales in comparison to how Pam Bondi corrupted and weaponized the Department of Justice. So I suspect she's going to become yet another member of the Donald Trump disbarred attorneys club. And she's not just a member, she may end up being the president.

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Glenn, it's worth asking here, how will that impact Pam Bondi's ability to do her job moving forward? How does having somebody who, you know, served as the attorney general of Florida, of the United States, being disbarred, what kind of impacts will that have?

You know, it will probably disqualify her from any organization, legal or otherwise, that cares about the ethics of the people they bring into the fold. They allow to join their organization. of characters? Maybe that's what she will see herself doing. Or she'll, you know, glom on to some Republican billionaire oligarch, you know, and provide

executive branch that some billionaire would like to exploit. So listen, I'm not pretending that she's going to be out of work. We're not going to see her on a street corner in Florida selling bags of oranges, I don't suspect, but, you know, it's going to make it tough for her to get what I would call a respectable job with a respectable organization, legal or otherwise.

You know, I don't want to be unfair to Florida, but I feel like Florida's also kind of earned its reputation. You know, you had mentioned that Giuliani was disbarred from New York and all of these other attorneys were disbarred from their respective bars in states like DC,

or in territories like DC, or in territories like DC. But how does the Florida of it all play into things? Do you have any concern that Florida will be like, I don't know how else to say this other than to say that Florida is just going to do Florida and have a little bit of a different standard than the other bars?

Things seem to be changing in Florida, what do I base that on? Well now there is a state representative representing the district that includes Mar-a-Lago and she's a Democrat. It was something like a 12 or 14 point swing in the recent election. So I am not prepared to write off Florida as being irredeemable. Now it's still headed up by DeSantis so you know we know what we're contending with there. But it really feels to me like things are changing especially when you see Donald Trump's poll numbers. He's in what

the mid to low 30s in the approval rating. I believe things are changing. I want to believe that that is true of Florida and here is the sort of naive optimist in me. I would like to believe that state bar council organizations really do care about the ethics and the lawfulness of the attorneys that they license to practice law. If they don't weed out unethical attorneys, it really reflects poorly on them. And I would like to think that if there is going to be

a government agency or even a quasi-government agency that's gonna try to be fair, even-handed, and as apolitical as possible, even down in Florida, it should be something like a state bar organization responsible for overseeing all of the conduct of the attorneys who are barred in that state.

Glenn, do you think that these bar councils are set up properly for the Trump era and that they're doing enough to hold those who have abused their positions to account?

You know, it's a state by state determination. Things are probably significantly different in red states than in blue states. And I don't want to paint with too broad a brush. You know, I think what you have to do is evaluate what each bar organization does with the attorneys who are referred for investigation. And what we know is that the attorneys who have been referred for investigations

who were part of Donald Trump's first dirty batch of lawyers, and that was all in the election interference arena, they've all either been disbarred, or if they weren't disbarred, some of them were sanctioned,

like Jenna Ellis, who also pleaded guilty down in Georgia to being part of the, you know, dirty attempt and conspiracy to interfere with the election in Georgia. Kenneth Chesbrough pleaded guilty down in Georgia. He also went on to be disbarred. Sidney Powell, we'll all remember the Kraken,

she pleaded guilty in Georgia, she was sanctioned. So, you know, each state bar viewed the evidence with respect to what the attorney did, who was barred in that state. And they made, you know, what seems to be supportable decisions. And I would like to think that that will continue to happen moving forward.

Do most of these former administration officials, not just Trump administration officials, but all government administration officials, do they then go on to generally join private practice where presumably they would make a ton of money? What I'm trying to gauge here is how much of an impact this will actually have on Pambandi because there will always be opportunities for these Trump hangers-on to make money and abuse whatever access they have. But if most of these lawyers, former attorneys general,

whoever it may be, US attorneys, if they generally go on to private practice where they have the opportunity to make a boatload of money or become general counsel for major corporations where they go on to make a boatload of money. The fact that Pam Bondi may be disbarred, that could have pretty massive implications.

So can you talk a little bit about what past folks in her positions have done so that I can kind of gauge what kind of an impact that it would have even in the event that she did get disbarred?

Well, first of all, if you are disbarred, you are not going to private practice, not in a law firm. Now, you can certainly sell yourself as a quasi-lobbyist because of the connections and the influence you think you might have inside the executive branch, at least in as much as it is Donald Trump's executive

branch. So this is where I am not all that optimistic. I think these people are always going to be able to sell themselves, even if they can't practice law anymore. And the reason I say that, Brian,

is we seem to be living in a post-shame society. When once you get notoriety for any reason, even if it's because you're unethical or you've broken the law or you're trampling the constitutional rights of American citizens, documented immigrants,

undocumented immigrants, once you have that notoriety, it seems there are places for you to go, places that will welcome you with open arms clicks, because these days clicks can lead to money. So, you know, I am not optimistic that shame will again sort of resurge and will cause

the Pam Bondis of the world in the event she is now not only fired but disbarred to just, you know, kind of crawl under a rock and and, you know, live with the shame that she so richly deserves because shame doesn't really seem to be a motivating factor anymore for some people.

Well, look, this may be a post shame world, but hopefully it's not a post accountability world. So we will, of course, stay on top of any news, any updates we get as relates to the possible disbarment of Pam Bondi or any other Trump administration officials. So again, for those who are watching, if you'd like to stay on top of this story and other legal news, the best way to do that is to subscribe to both of our channels.

I'm going to put those links right here on the screen and also in the post description I'm going to put those links right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. If you're not yet subscribed, please go ahead and hit subscribe. I'm Brian Taylor Cohen. And I'm Glenn Kirshner. You're watching The Legal Breakdown.