What Pam Bondi and Lindsey Halligan did was not incompetence--It was intentional misconduct. They both must be disbarred.

Only way to deter other lawyers.

Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman. These three have a few things in common: 1. All were lawyers who represented Donald Trump. 2. All three violated the law and/or ethical rules in furtherance of Trump’s illegal goals. 3. All three have been disbarred.

There are now two more lawyers that should be added to that list: Pam Bondi and Lindsey Halligan. Both should be disbarred for their misconduct in connection with the criminal cases against NY Attorney General Tish James and former FBI director James Comey.

Some have described what Halligan and Bondi did—which led to the dismissal Monday of these two cases—as incompetence. That is part of it. But their failure to follow the Constitution and federal law—as the judge found in dismissing the case—actually springs from an arrogance that they are above the law because they work for Donald Trump. That cannot be allowed to go unpunished.

For starters, Bondi was involved in the firing of US Attorney Eric Siebert—who had been personally appointed by Trump in January—because he had not found credible evidence of crimes by James and James. Trump fired Siebert on September 20, followed by a social media post that instructed Bondi to install a prosecutor to go after his political enemies. As Trump wrote, “Pam: I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that, essentially, “same old story as last time, all talk, no action. Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam “Shifty” Schiff, Leticia??? They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.”

And as you can see from the full post below, Trump also demanded that Halligan—Trump’s personal lawyer, a former beauty pageant contestant with zero prosecution experience--be appointed as the US Attorney for Virginia. Obviously it was because Halligan would not be deterred by a lack of evidence in prosecuting Trump’s enemies,

At that point Bondi should’ve refused or even resigned instead of helping Trump with the malicious prosecution of his political critics. Instead, Bondi did what Trump wanted by appointing Halligan. But as the judge found Monday, this appointment of Halligan was invalid. Worse, the judge found that Bondi had tried to correct the issue by backdating the appointment—something that was so jarring the judge noted “the Government has identified no authority allowing the Attorney General to reach back in time and rewrite the terms of a past appointment.”

Even before Monday’s dismissal, two different federal judges/magistrates last week flagged more misconduct by Halligan that goes way beyond incompetence and instead appears to be unethical and potentially illegal.

For starters, last Monday, federal magistrate William Fitzpatrick found in the Comey case that Halligan made at least two “fundamental and highly prejudicial” misstatements of the law to the grand jury. One of them was to tell the grand jury that in essence if you don’t think there is enough evidence to indict, don’t worry about it and still indict Comey because we have plenty more evidence that we aren’t showing you. That is insane. That undermines the entire criminal justice system and the protections for potential defendants!

The judge also cited other actions by the FBI—which are under Bondi’s control as AG—that violated Comey’s rights. Overall, the judge wrote, “The court is finding that the government’s actions in this case — whether purposeful, reckless or negligent — raise genuine issues of misconduct, are inextricably linked to the government’s grand jury presentation and deserve to be fully explored by the defense.”

Yep, the judge flagged “misconduct” by Halligan and Bondi with the only question being whether the actions were intentional or simply incompetence.

Then last Wednesday, the US district judge overseeing the Comey case, Michael Nachmanoff, discovered that Halligan never submitted the final indictment against Comey to the grand jury. Instead, she only had the grand jury foreman sign it. This shocked legal experts nationwide. This is far beyond incompetence; it’s simply not caring enough to follow the Constitution because you work for Trump.

That brings us to Monday’s dismissal of both the indictments of Comey and Tish James (without prejudice.) Judge Cameron Currie found Halligan’s appointment violated 28 U.S.C. Section 546 and the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Just so it’s clear, this is not a paperwork error. Judge Currie made that clear writing, The Appointments Clause “is more than a matter of etiquette or protocol; it is among the significant structural safeguards of the constitutional scheme.”

As a result, the judge concluded that, “All actions flowing from Ms. Halligan’s defective appointment, including securing and signing Mr. Comey’s indictment, were unlawful exercises of executive power and are hereby set aside.” Same applied to the indictment of James.

What I laid out above is not incompetence, it’s intentional or at least reckless misconduct. Bondi and Halligan—like Rudy Giuliani, Johns Eastman and Kenneth Chesebro before—believed that if they are working for Trump, they are above the law. They are not.

Both Bondi and Halligan should be investigated and disbarred. That is not just my opinion as an attorney who practiced law as a trial lawyer for about six years before joining the circus. (I left the practice of law to become a comedian, work at Saturday Night Live and now battle daily using the media to save our Republic!) Former Trump White House lawyer from the first term, Ty Cobb, made that very point over the past few days as did well known national security lawyer Bradley Moss. (Below is Cobb on MSNOW)

As Cobb laid out, Bondi appears to have lied to the court in her filings trying to cover up the errors in the appointment of Halligan. In addition, as he noted, Halligan’s misconduct goes way beyond innocent mistakes.

Many have noted that since both Bondi and Halligan are members of the Florida bar that the courts there will protect them from being disbarred. That may be true. But the misconduct of Bondi and Halligan took place in federal courts--which have the inherent power to discipline lawyers for unethical conduct including barring them from appearing in that federal district again.

For example, the federal district court for Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC circuit both have their own rules of professional conduct that lawyers must comply with. Both provide that the court can suspend or disbar attorneys for professional misconduct or conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.

The misconduct by Bondi and Halligan found by three different judges demands at the very least an investigation and some form of punishment. That is the only way to deter other lawyers who work for Trump from believing they are above the law and free to violate laws and the Constitution in furtherance of Trump’s illegal schemes. If not, we will see even more illegal prosecutions and misconduct by Trump’s lawyers.

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