Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, and Representative Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, urged the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inspector General to conduct a review to determine whether Attorney General Pam Bondi has appropriately recused herself from – or improperly influenced – several cases involving defendants represented by her brother, Brad Bondi.
This push follows the Justice Department’s failure to answer Senator Schiff and Rep. Min’s inquiry regarding a “troubling pattern” of repeated intervention or dismissals of cases involving Pam Bondi’s brother. In a recent LinkedIn post, Brad Bondi provided public, firsthand confirmation of “remarkable victories” for his clients, referencing “many confidential settlements, declinations, and closing letters from the SEC and other regulatory agencies” in 2025 that “didn’t make the press.”
The lawmakers wrote “we are concerned that DOJ officials, including the Attorney General, may have failed to ensure the independence of internal accountability mechanisms.”
“Considering these circumstances and potentially serious implications for the impartial administration of justice, we respectfully request that the Office of the Inspector General conduct a review into whether Attorney General Bondi adequately recused herself from any involvement in these public and confidential matters, and whether the appropriate ethics safeguards… and DOJ Justice Manual were implemented and respected,” concluded the lawmakers.
The full text of the letter is available here and below:
Dear Mr. Blier,
We write to request that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General conduct a review to determine whether Attorney General Pamela Bondi properly recused herself from, or otherwise improperly influenced, several cases involving defendants represented by her brother, Bradley “Brad” Bondi.
On December 16, 2025, we sent a letter to Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche seeking clarification as to whether the Department has properly implemented firewalls and screening procedures to separate the Attorney General from matters involving her brother and whether she has recused herself from cases in which the Department’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned. Refraining from such matters is necessary to ensure compliance with requirements under the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) and DOJ Justice Manual federal ethics standards. We requested a response to our questions by January 2, 2026. To date, we have received no reply.
Our earlier letter outlined several specific cases in which Mr. Bondi’s involvement likely poses a conflict of interest for the Attorney General. In a recent LinkedIn post, Mr. Bondi provided public, firsthand direct evidence and confirmation of these “remarkable victories” for his clients:
- In August 2025, Cruise Lines International Association and others filed a suit against the Hawai‘i Department of Taxation and the State of Hawai‘i in opposition to an 11% state surcharge and 3% county fees on cruise fares for vessels docking in Hawai‘i. Mr. Bondi served as counsel for one of the plaintiffs. Although the DOJ was not an original party, it succeeded in a motion to intervene shortly before a scheduled hearing on a motion to dismiss. It’s possible this intervention proved important, given the Court issued an injunction on December 31, 2025, preventing Hawai‘i from collecting the challenged taxes on cruise ship fares, which the Hawai‘i Department of Taxation formally acknowledged on January 2, 2026 – the same day we sought responses from the Department of Justice.
- Caroline Amesty – who retained Mr. Bondi in December 2024 – was charged on January 17, 2025, with two counts of theft of government property, based on allegations that she fraudulently obtained $122,000 worth of small-business loans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The government sought multiple delays and extensions, which the judge described as excessive, before ending its criminal investigation and declining to pursue an indictment.
- In September 2024, the DOJ charged Sidarth Chakraverty and Victor Alston with 11 counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Mr. Chakraverty retained Mr. Bondi in July 2025. Not long after, their charges were suddenly dismissed, despite reports that several DOJ career prosecutors and President Trump appointed interim United States Attorney Thomas Albus previously concluded that criminal penalties were appropriate.
- Trevor Milton was convicted in 2022 on federal securities fraud and wire fraud charges and represented by Mr. Bondi as lead counsel. Mr. Milton received a presidential pardon on March 27, 2025.
In his post, Mr. Bondi also referenced “many confidential settlements, declinations, and closing letters from the SEC and other regulatory agencies” in 2025 that “didn’t make the press.” The extent, if any, of the DOJ’s involvement in these confidential matters is unknown but, 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.
Considering these circumstances and potentially serious implications for the impartial administration of justice, we respectfully request that the Office of the Inspector General conduct a review into whether Attorney General Bondi adequately recused herself from any involvement in these public and confidential matters, and whether the appropriate ethics safeguards, particularly C.F.R. § 2635.502, C.F.R. § 2635.101, and DOJ Justice Manual were implemented and respected.
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