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.
Mr. Bondi, 51, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Bondi, a former top staff member at the Securities and Exchange Commission, was already a well-known and deeply connected defense lawyer in Washington before his sister became attorney general. But his professional life has, in recent years, intersected with people in her orbit — including Mr. Trump’s business associates and Elon Musk.
He represented Tesla Inc. in a 2018 settlement with the S.E.C. over Mr. Musk’s social media posts about taking the company private. Six years later, Trump transition officials considered Mr. Bondi as a candidate to run the commission, but opted for Paul Atkins, whom Mr. Bondi has described as a close friend.
Last year, Mr. Bondi’s practice group at Paul Hastings was hired to represent Miami-based Digital World Acquisition Corp., in its merger negotiations with Mr. Trump’s media company.
Ms. Bondi later reported owning nearly $3 million in Trump Media shares after the parent company of Truth Social went public a year ago, according to financial disclosures.
In January, a group of investors seeking to buy TikTok enlisted Mr. Bondi to prepare a bid. Mr. Trump later reversed President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s ban on the Chinese social media app.
Shortly before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Bondi signed on to represent Carolina Amesty, a former Republican state legislator in Florida charged by federal prosecutors with stealing $122,000 in pandemic relief aid, according to court filings.
Mr. Bondi has given more than $25,000 to political committees in support of Mr. Trump since 2020, according to federal campaign finance records. But he does not seem to share Mr. Trump’s determination to roll back diversity and inclusion efforts, a cause enthusiastically championed by his sister.
In 2021, Mr. Bondi set aside $100,000 to create the “Bradley J. Bondi Diversity and Inclusion Endowed Scholarship” at the University of Florida College of Law, his alma mater.
Kitty Bennett contributed research, and Charlie Savage contributed reporting.
