Trump allies go down in flames in attempted takeover of the Washington DC Bar
President Donald Trump's allies made a dash to try and take over the Bar Association for Washington, D.C. — but the effort failed badly.
In March, NBC News reported that two Trump allies were running for the D.C Bar's leadership. Bradley Bondi, Attorney General Pam Bondi's brother, and Alicia Long, who was a deputy to brief interim U.S. Attorney Ed Martin, tried to seize control.
After a vote, Bondi couldn't cross 10% support among the membership.
According to the Bar Association website, Diane A. Seltzer received 34,982 votes to Bondi's 3,490 votes. Long did significantly better than Bondi with over 8,800 votes. She still lost, however, to Amanda C. Molina, who had 26,380 votes.
As NPR reported in May, the race garnered a lot of attention, resulting in the highest vote among its membership ever. The next largest election was in 1990 and saw less than one-third of the participation.
"My priority is making sure that the rule of law is upheld, that we feel that we are safe to do our jobs and that we can go forward every day representing the clients we choose," Seltzer said at the time of the NPR interview.
As reporter Carrie Johnson explained, "The Bar president mostly plays an administrative role and has no say in attorney discipline. Seltzer's running against prominent securities attorney Brad Bondi. Bondi has represented billionaire Elon Musk and the Trump Media & Technology Group."
"BIG WIN for the D.C. Bar & democracy President-Elect Diane Seltzer triumphed with a staggering 90% of the vote. Given what one Bondi has done as AG, we did not need to take a risk on another heading the DC Bar," commented Norm Eisen, a former ethics czar for Barack Obama's administration.
"If they were going to make me vote for the first time in D.C. Bar elections, at least the person I voted for won convincingly. I will now resume not caring about the D.C. Bar one iota," said D.C. lawyer Sean Marotta.