US Attorney General Bondi's brother loses election to lead Washington DC bar
Bondi, a partner and co-chair of the investigations and white-collar defense practice at law firm Paul Hastings, lost the race to serve as bar president to Diane Seltzer, an employment law attorney at The Seltzer Law Firm.
D.C. Bar CEO Robert Spagnoletti announced the results on Monday after a race that the group said drew a record 38,600 ballots, up from 7,500 in the last election. Seltzer secured more than 90 percent of the vote, Spagnoletti said.
Bondi in a statement said "although I did not prevail, I stand with a heart full of gratitude and a mind heavy with concern for the future of the D.C. Bar." He said he was "disgusted by how rabid partisans lurched this election into the political gutter, turning a professional campaign into baseless attacks, identity politics, and partisan recrimination."
Seltzer in a statement said the result showed that Washington's lawyers care about "maintaining the rule of law, being able to practice law without fear of retaliation, and having a leader who is experienced and has the qualifications to be in that position.'
Some lawyers in Washington had issued warnings on social media that a Bondi victory could imperil the bar's independence, urging members to vote for Seltzer. Bondi said before the results were announced that he had run a non-partisan campaign for an apolitical post.
Membership in the association is mandatory for D.C. lawyers. The group's 23-person board, of which the president is a member, plays a limited role in enforcing ethics rules for attorneys by recommending members to sit on a separate panel that oversees the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
Bondi's candidacy rattled some lawyers due to his ties to the Trump administration. His sister, the attorney general, is a loyalist to President Donald Trump and has echoed some of Trump's false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump in March directed Pam Bondi to refer lawyers and law firms for disciplinary action if they appeared to violate professional conduct rules. That directive was part of an executive order that accused immigration lawyers of coaching their clients to lie.
The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, created by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, has authority to investigate attorney misconduct and to recommend suspending or disbarring lawyers. It pursued several cases against attorneys involved in efforts to overturn Trump's defeat to Democrat Joe Biden during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The appeals court can reject recommendations from the bar association's board, and the bar's president cannot sway investigatory decisions, according to Spagnoletti.
Voting in the D.C. Bar election began on April 15, after Trump launched a pressure campaign on the U.S. legal industry through executive orders against law firms with ties to his legal or political adversaries.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
Execution date set for Florida man who killed estranged wife's sister and parents, set fire to house
A Florida man who fatally stabbed his estranged wife's sister and parents and then set fire to their house is scheduled for execution in Florida under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. David Pittman, 63, is set to die Sept. 17 in the record-extending 12th execution scheduled for this year. DeSantis signed the warrant Friday, as two other men, Kayle Bates and Curtis Windom, await execution later this month. The highest previous annual total of recent Florida executions is eight in 2014, since the death penalty was restored in 1976 by the U.S. Supreme Court. Florida has already executed nine people this year, more than any other state, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each. A total of 28 people have been executed so far this year in the U.S., exceeding the 25 executions carried out last year. It ties 2015, when 28 people were also put to death. Pittman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1991 on three counts of first-degree murder, according to court records. Jurors also found him guilty of arson and grand theft. Pittman and his wife, Marie, were going through a divorce in May 1990, when Pittman went to the Polk County home of her parents, Clarence and Barbara Knowles, officials said. Pittman fatally stabbed the couple, as well as their younger daughter, Bonnie. He then set fire to the house and stole Bonnie Knowles' car, which he also set on fire, investigators said. A witnessed identified Pittman as the person running away from the burning car. A jailhouse informant also testified that Pittman had admitted to the killings. The Florida Supreme Court is already scheduled to hear an appeal. An appeal will also likely be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Daily Mail
12 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Putin's legs 'twitch suspiciously' during Trump meeting
This is the moment the leg of Russian president Vladimir Putin was seen 'twitching suspiciously' as he bid farewell to Donald Trump. Kremlin footage captured the Russian leader's knee jolting repeatedly as he stood alongside his US counterpart at the end of their brief exchange following a joint press conference at the summit in Alaska. The pair, flanked by security teams and aides, spoke for a short time, with a translator stepping in to assist their conversation. Video clips shared online showed the Russian leader repeatedly dipping one knee as he stood beside the 6ft 3in former president at Elmendorf-Richardson Air Base in Anchorage - before departing without agreeing to a ceasefire in Ukraine. But the unusual movements were seized by eagle-eyed Ukrainians, who ridiculed the 72-year-old's fidgeting and speculated about the state of his health. They even claimed he wore a 'light exoskeleton' as well as thick-platform shoes to overcome his 'Napoleon complex' and minimise his height difference with the US president. An exoskeleton is a wearable robotic device designed to assist or augment the posture of the person wearing it. Observers also noted the striking difference in stature, with Trump's 6ft 3in frame towering over the 5ft 7in Russian leader despite Putin's visibly elevated footwear. 'Attention - Putin's legs. What is wrong with them?' asked Times of Ukraine channel. 'Putin seems to have achieved his goal, but he is twitching suspiciously. His legs are "shaking." Maybe his shoes are tight,' said Nevzorov channel. As well as pushing out his knees, Putin repeatedly raised his left toe and heel in turn. Another Ukrainian outlet commented on how Putin 'suddenly "grew" for the meeting with Trump'. 'A strange element resembling a light exoskeleton was noticed in the outfit of the Russian dictator,' claimed Crimean Wind. The 20 centimetre - or eight inch - difference in the leaders' heights was 'not very noticeable on the video. However, something resembling a light exoskeleton under the [trousers] – at least from the knees down – is noticeable. Apparently, suffering from a Napoleon complex, Putin decided not to limit himself to traditional shoes with hidden platforms adding up to 12 cm [almost 5 inches] in height for the "meeting of the century".' Later Putin was seen bending his knee to lay flowers at the graves of Soviet pilots and other military personnel at the Fort Richardson Memorial Cemetery. During the Lend-Lease programme during the Second World War, Soviet pilots trained in Alaska and ferried U.S.-built aircraft across the Bering Strait. Some died during training or flights. After laying flowers, Putin returned to his 'Flying Kremlin' Il-96-300PU presidential plane, where he is known as 'Passenger Number One'. American fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighters escorted the plane carrying Vladimir Putin after his departure from Elmendorf-Richardson Air Base following talks with Trump. Soon afterwards - after crossing the International Date Line - Putin landed in the far-flung Russian region Chukotka, where ex-Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich was once the governor, for meetings with local officials. Following the summit, Trump has been calling Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO and European allies to update them on the two-and-a-half hour meeting. Zelensky has now said he will travel to Washington on Monday.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Israeli government official arrested in Nevada in internet crimes against children sting
An Israeli government cybersecurity official was reportedly arrested recently by Las Vegas police and other authorities in Nevada who were conducting an undercover investigation aimed at online users seeking to sexually prey on children. Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, faces felony charges of luring a child with a computer for a sex act, alongside several other suspects who were apprehended during the two-week sting operation, the Las Vegas metropolitan police department said in a statement published on Friday. He has since evidently been released from custody and returned to Israel. As first reported by the news site Mediaite, a publicly posted screenshot of Alexandrovich's page on the LinkedIn professional networking platform described him as the executive director of the Israel Cyber Directorate, an Israeli government agency under the purview of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Other information online attributes the same position to Alexandrovich. The screenshot first reported by Mediaite also showed a post under Alexandrovich's name alluding to his having been in Las Vegas earlier in August for the Black Hat Briefings, a yearly meeting of cybersecurity professionals. 'Two things you can't escape at Black Hat 2025: the relentless buz of generative [artificial intelligence] and the sound of Hebrew … in every corridor,' Alexandrovich wrote in part in an accompanying post. Invoking an abbreviation for large language models and referring to one of Israel's largest cities, the post continued: 'The key takeaway? The future of cybersecurity is being written in code, and it seems a significant part of it is being authored in #TelAviv and powered by LLMs. An exciting time to be in the field!' That LinkedIn page under Alexandrovich's name has since been deleted. The Israeli news outlet Ynet reported on Wednesday that the US had detained 'an employee of the Israel National Cyber Directorate' for interrogation while he was representing his country at a professional conference. That employee then returned to his hotel and flew back to Israel two days later. 'Israeli officials downplayed the incident, saying it carried 'no political implications' and was resolved quickly,' Ynet reported, without naming Alexandrovich or mentioning he had been arrested in connection with a felony charge leveled against him by Nevada law enforcement officials. 'The reasons for the questioning remain unclear but may relate to the employee's conduct.' Mediaite reported that Netanyahu's office issued a statement denying that the employee in question had even been arrested. 'A state employee who traveled to the US for professional matters was questioned by American authorities during his stay,' the prime minister's office said. 'The employee, who does not hold a diplomatic visa, was not arrested and returned to Israel as scheduled.' Nevada's internet crime against children taskforce helmed the operation which resulted in the arrests of Alexandrovich and seven other men in the city of Henderson, which is near Las Vegas. All eight suspects were brought to jail after their arrests, said the statement from the Las Vegas metropolitan police department, which participated in the operation alongside local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Under Nevada law, luring a child with a computer for a sex act can carry between one and 10 years in prison.
