Bradley J. Bondi, brother of Attorney General Pam Bondi, has announced his candidacy to lead the bar association in Washington at a time when the group might be asked to consider accusations that political appointees at the Justice Department violated professional or ethical norms.
Mr. Bondi, a partner at Paul Hastings, a global white-collar criminal defense firm with offices in Washington, threw his hat in the ring in late February, according to a roster of candidates posted on the association’s website.
The three-year position of president at the 118,000-member association is unpaid. The role does not extend to controlling disbarments and other disciplinary actions, which are handled by a board of professional responsibility that is appointed and overseen by a court, according to the association’s bylaws.
But his candidacy comes at a time when Ms. Bondi, like many other Trump appointees, is quashing internal dissent and seeking retribution against President Trump’s perceived enemies in ways that have challenged norms of prosecutorial independence from politics.
The association, which acted to disbar former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York for promoting lies about the 2020 election, could soon become a venue to resolve complaints about the conduct of other Trump allies. Former prosecutors and Democrats are considering filing complaints against department officials over what they claim are efforts to inject politics into prosecutorial decision making, particularly at the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington.
The bar association’s election period starts next month and ends in early June. Mr. Bondi’s opponent is Diane A. Seltzer, a Maryland-based lawyer who runs a small firm specializing in employment law. She has been far more active in the bar association than Mr. Bondi.