Judges rip into Bondi’s ‘violation of court orders’ and chilling disregard of a basic legal right: ‘innocent until proven guilty’

Two federal judges are raising concerns about Pam Bondi’s use of X to publicize a several arrests last month. They’re saying her posts, which included names and often photos of defendants shortly after their arrests, “violated a court order” that had sealed those cases. 

According to Politico, Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster leveled this criticism in an order connected to the prosecution of Nitzana Flores from South Haven, Minnesota. Flores is accused of assaulting two Border Patrol officers during a scuffle in Minneapolis last month. Judge Foster pointed out that Bondi’s decision to post names and arrest photos really undercut the prosecutors’ own request. 

The government actually requested an order to stop defense attorneys from publicly sharing personal information about the immigration agents involved in Flores’s case. They even wanted to prohibit defense counsel from sharing that information with their clients. Foster found Bondi’s social media posts made the government’s plea for court-ordered discretion for its agents “eyebrow-raising, to say the least.” 

Talk about a double standard

Foster wrote that the government “failed to respect Ms. Flores’s dignity and privacy, exposed her to a risk of doxxing, and generally thumbed its nose at the notion that defendants are innocent until proven guilty.” She added that the post directly violated a court order sealing the case. “Notwithstanding, the government now seeks an accommodation from the Court that it blatantly failed to give Ms. Flores and her codefendants,” the judge concluded.

Ultimately, Foster did modify the government’s proposal, but she broadened it to cover any party, victim, or witness, while narrowing the details that could be shared. Crucially, the judge declined to restrict what evidence Flores can see.

In a separate Minneapolis case last week, Magistrate Judge Shannon Elkins also directed prosecutors to “address whether the public posting of photographs violated the Court’s sealing order.” It seems like the Justice Department is getting the message, even if spokespeople didn’t respond to requests for comment.

There are signs that Bondi is adjusting her approach. Just recently, she was much more careful when announcing a new, massive wave of arrests connected to a disruptive immigration-related protest at a St. Paul church last month. This new indictment added 30 defendants to the nine people already charged. Bondi’s X post went up within a minute of the indictment being unsealed, and she was careful not to jump the gun with photos or names. 

The narrative the DOJ has used to indict people in the Minnesota protest has been called into question lately. This is because ICE has been given the authorization to raid religious properties as a part of their immigration enforcement activities.  

The federal government has historically resisted making booking photos and mugshots public in federal criminal cases, often citing privacy concerns, unless required to track down a fugitive or for investigative reasons. Since the start of the Trump administration, however, the DOJ has routinely publicized names, ages, and hometowns of arrested individuals in press releases and on social media.