Whitehouse Calls on Bondi to Preserve Documents as DOJ Seeks to Interfere with State Bar Ethics Processes

Amid worsening ethics lapses from Trump administration lawyers, MAGA DOJ proposes rule to subvert independent oversight of, and accountability for, its lawyers

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Courts Subcommittee, sent a letter on Monday to Attorney General Pam Bondi requesting that the Department of Justice preserve records related to its proposed rule entitled, "Review of State Bar Complaints and Allegations Against Department of Justice Attorneys." The proposed rule would give the Attorney General the right to review any ethics complaint against DOJ attorneys made by or before a state bar - an independent overseer of attorney ethics - and to request that the bar suspend investigations until DOJ completes its own review.

The Department claims that the proposed change is necessary because of "weaponization" of the state bar complaint process, citing the surge of state bar complaints against Trump appointees Todd Blanche, former senior official and current Third Circuit Judge Emil Bove, and DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin, among others. Many of the complaints are substantive and allege that the Department's attorneys have failed to comply with ethical obligations.

"The proposed rule coincides with mounting reports of state bar ethics complaints against and investigations into Trump DOJ attorneys. The proposed rule also follows Deputy Attorney General Blanche's November 2025 comments to the Federalist Society, including, '[t]he D.C. Bar, in particular, is one of the most activist, obnoxious bars,' and 'we're going to do everything we can to take activist bars… out of the picture,'" Whitehouse writes in the new letter.

Whitehouse continued, "While the proposed rule cites 'unprecedented weaponization of the State bar complaint process' as necessitating the rule, it fails to mention a correspondingly unprecedented level of rebuke that courts have heaped on Trump DOJ attorneys for failing to meet basic obligations of candor, lawfulness, and good faith."

Whitehouse requested that Attorney General Bondi preserve any existing and future records related to the proposed rule. Whitehouse reminded the attorney general that federal law obligates DOJ to preserve federal records on all of their employees and makes violations subject to criminal prosecution.

In September, Whitehouse and Senator Blumenthal (D-CT) filed an ethics complaint with the New York State Bar against Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Emil Bove alleging three significant instances of prosecutorial misconduct in six months.

A PDF of the letter is available here.

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