Stetson Law Alumni Sign Letter To Denounce AG Pam Bondi - The Gabber Newspaper

Photo by Seán Kinane / WMNF News (May 15, 2018)

By Juanita Hurtado Huérfano — WMNF

Some alumni from Stetson University College of Law are signing a letter requesting the college to denounce Attorney General Pam Bondi.

The letter criticizes Bondi’s congressional testimony on Feb. 11. It says the testimony was “marked by deflections and a failure to provide clear, substantive answers regarding key decisions about the review process and redactions.”

The testimony itself drew wide bipartisan criticism.

“The hope was that potentially the school might take some action to distance themselves or to disclaim that kind of conduct,” Charles Gallagher is one of the alumni who signed the letter. “That’s not something we were educated on when we were at Stetson. Stetson highly prizes ethical practice of law, ethical conduct.”

The letter also disavows her handling of the release of the Epstein files. It says alumnus are troubled by “the “millions of pages of documents that reportedly contained flawed redactions” that led to victims’ names being leaked and the protection of “abusers and enablers.”

For Gallagher, it is also about how Bondi’s platform as one of the most prominent Stetson Law alumni reflects on the current students.

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“We understand that students there may be a bit troubled by what probably the most well-known alumni of our school is doing in her role as attorney general,” Gallagher said. “And we’d like to provide some cover to those students to support them, letting them know that we don’t go ahead and sanction that we find objection with that.”

The letter acknowledges the Attorney General position is “an extraordinarily difficult responsibility” and that these sensitive legal issues present “inherent challenges.” But it denounces Bondi’s behavior as “resistant to accountability” and “inconsistent” with university values and the principles of her profession.

They letter is open to signatures until Feb. 20.

In an email statement, Stetson Law wrote: “following the principle of institutional neutrality on political matters, Stetson University has no comment.”

The Department of Justice did not respond by deadline.

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