EXCLUSIVE: DHS General Counsel James Percival is turning a complaint from 128 former judges back on its signers, calling on the Florida Bar to scrutinize those among them who are Bar members after it declined to investigate him.
The Bar said it does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office, a position Percival argued the complainants should have known before challenging his “Worst of the Worst Judges” series.
Percival accused the Florida Bar members who joined the complaint of potentially abusing the disciplinary process for political purposes, arguing their filing was frivolous and dubbing the tactic “Bar-fare.”
“The 128 former judges are sort of an example of a tactic the left has used for a long time,” Percival told Fox News Digital, comparing their appeal to professional authority to the 2020 controversy involving 51 former intelligence officials and Hunter Biden’s laptop.
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Percival pointed to the Florida Bar’s previous handling of a complaint involving former Attorney General Pam Bondi, arguing that they already signaled refusal to probe sitting presidential appointees.
“[W]hat these 128 former judges did was frivolous, and they were on notice that it was frivolous because the Florida Bar is very clear about this. So, it’s ‘Bar-fare’,” he said, playing on the term “lawfare.”
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Percival said the same tactic has been used elsewhere, including the Hunter Biden laptop controversy and the way dissent over COVID-era restrictions was met with echoes of “trust the experts.”
“The left has just like often hid behind this veneer, this prestige [of expertise] and they’ve gotten people who carry weight to carry their water for them. And I really think the emperor has no clothes on this, but we have to call it out and expose it.”
When the political left does not want to publicly debate the merits of their assertion, they get figures who appear authoritative to shut down dissent, he said.
The comments came after rule-of-law groups Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy and 128 former federal and state judges filed a 24-page complaint accusing Percival of violating Florida’s rules governing statements about judges. The complaint alleged that Percival, a licensed Florida attorney, violated ethics rules through “public attacks on sitting judges.”
“His statements mischaracterized the judges’ rulings and assailed their character and integrity. The ethics rules exist for a reason: Baseless attacks on judges by lawyers and public officials can undermine confidence in the courts and heighten the risk of physical threats against judges,” Democracy Defenders Fund said in a statement after the Bar declined to investigate the complaint.
Former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, an appointee of Democratic ex-Gov. Lawton Chiles, led the judges’ consortium.
The complaint focuses on four judges featured in Percival’s “Worst of the Worst” posts, whom he accused of actions including “open defiance of the Supreme Court,” “judicial sabotage” and “judicial micromanagement.”
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The cases involved disputes over Temporary Protected Status, the government’s handling of Kilmar Ábrego García and DHS use-of-force policies.
The complaint also referenced an article written by Percival condemning former President Joe Biden and a Rhode Island judge he appointed after an illegal immigrant whom DHS said had an international warrant for homicide was ordered released.
Percival said the activist judges themselves are the ones who are being a “disservice to the judiciary.”
He argued that judges know their district court rulings can delay executive action when they cannot be immediately appealed.
As for the complainants, Percival said those who are themselves members of the Florida Bar should face scrutiny over whether they abused the complaint process for political purposes.
The Bar provided Fox News Digital a copy of its response sent to the Framingham, Massachusetts, address listed for the collective complainants.
Bar Counsel Christopher Wackes wrote his group does not investigate or prosecute “sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office.” Wackes said any action could “encroach on the authority of the federal government.”
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He quipped situations like the bar complaint show he is over the proverbial target:
“[I]f people are this upset about what I’m doing, it must be having an effect that they don’t like, which really just encourages me to keep going,” he said, pressing conservatives to fight for their causes despite the knowledge the left will “try to ruin your life.”
Fox News Digital’s Kiera McDonald contributed to this report.
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