Democratic California lawmakers on Wednesday urged the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate concerns that Attorney General Pam Bondi inappropriately intervened in her brother’s legal cases.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Rep. Dave Min (D-CA) suggested that clients for Brad Bondi, who practices law in D.C. and New York, saw favorable results in several court cases involving the Justice Department because the attorney general “improperly influenced” the outcome. They asked for an investigation to review whether “Bondi properly recused herself from, or otherwise improperly influenced, several cases involving defendants represented by her brother.”
“Bondi has failed to explain how her brother and his corporate clients continue to achieve unexpected and favorable outcomes in cases in which the Bondi Justice Department intervenes,” Schiff said in a post to X, highlighting the letter he and Min sent to the inspector general’s office.
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“Given the troubling pattern at the department of repeated interventions or dismissals in cases involving Mr. Bondi, we are concerned that DOJ officials, including the attorney general, may have failed to ensure the independence of internal accountability mechanisms,” Schiff and Min wrote.
Brad Bondi is a partner at Paul Hastings, a prestigious law firm, where he is the co-chair of the Investigations and White-Collar Defense practice. Last year, he attracted notice for campaigning to become the next president of the elite D.C. Bar Association, but lost the bid.
Schiff and Min claimed that several defendants Brad Bondi represented had their criminal cases delayed unnecessarily or dropped, and inferred that it was due to his sister’s failure to recuse herself from involvement.
They noted a LinkedIn post Brad Bondi made in January, which referenced several “victories” he and his team secured last year, including a dismissal of Securities and Exchange Commission charges against Nikola founder Trevor Milton, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025 after being convicted of fraud. In that post, Brad Bondi noted several other cases in which he successfully persuaded the DOJ to drop charges, including against Sid Chakraverty and Carolina Amesty.
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When reached by the Washington Examiner for comment, DOJ Spokesman Gates McGavick defended Pam Bondi’s integrity, saying her brother’s “decisions were made through the proper channels, and the Attorney General had no role in them.”
Paul Hastings did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.